Almost three quarters of software developers in Europe will be developing service-orientated architectures this year, according to research conducted by Evans Data Corporation on behalf of BEA Systems.
The survey of over 1000 developers across Europe found that almost 75% are either developing, or expect to be developing SOA applications in 2005, with London (30%) and Madrid (25%) leading the way.
When questioned about the most useful technologies in SOA, over a quarter of respondents cited Web services (28%), followed by service orchestration with languages such as BPEL and BPELJ that help the automation of business processes (18%).
Commenting on the research, Jim Rivera, director of technology, BEA Systems, says: "We see a shift to SOA as being driven by the demand for IT to better align with the business and facilitate changing business processes."
The BEA survey also found that over half (60%) of European software developers will use Open Source Software (OSS) this year, although the lack of reliable support services remains a barrier to deeper market pentration.
Lack of regular updates, the unpredictable total cost of ownership and intellectual property concerns were also cited as impeding the uptake of OSS.
Credit Suisse First Boston's Chris Swan will be discussing ways in which service-oriented architectures help IT organisations to better serve business needs at Finexpo CTS, Finextra's third annual City Technology Strategies show, at Cabot Hall, Canary Wharf on Thursday 27 January 2005.