The worldwide application infrastructure and middleware (AIM) software market grew to $23.8 billion in 2014, up 8.8% from 2013, according to Gartner.
This helped the AIM market outperform — in revenue terms — the overall enterprise software market, which grew 5.7% from $405.5 billion in 2013 to $428.6 billion in 2014.
"The largest AIM vendors are increasingly being challenged by providers like Salesforce and SAP," said Fabrizio Biscotti, research director at Gartner. "At the same time, and as the cloud value proposition becomes more clear, many platform as a service (PaaS) providers like Google, Engine Yard, Informatica and Dell Boomi are a threat to established players."
Open source software and open core providers like MuleSoft, Talend and Liferay added further pressure to incumbent vendors in the market. Specific point solution vendors that specialize in niche but fast-growing technology areas (in-memory data grids and low-latency messaging, for example) also had a similar impact on the market.
"The role of AIM as an enabler of service-oriented architecture is well established, and it is increasingly emerging as a foundational technology for mobile, big data and analytics, in-memory computing, and cloud computing initiatives," said Biscotti. "It is also becoming a foundational element for businesses when adopting the Internet of Things, with the goal of universal integration in mind."
He said that rather than replacing existing AIM technology, organizations are focusing new spending on extending integration capabilities, through the use of PaaS offerings.
Legacy and foundational AIM will be replaced at a normal end-of-life pace. Furthermore, specialized vendors have introduced cloud-based alternatives to mobile middleware.
Gartner believes that IT departments need to refresh their application infrastructures. This could be the addition of capabilities needed to rapidly scale their systems, inject real-time operational intelligence into business processes, support advanced analytics and target do-it-yourself approaches to integration.