The No. 1 challenge in cloud computing today is determining what it really is. What categories of services exist within the definition and business model, and how ready are these options for enterprise consumption?

Foundational EAS technology is evolving to meet the challenges of constant innovation in business software. Service-oriented architecture, extreme transaction processing, cloud computing, metadata encoding of business logic, open source and event-driven architecture are the key drivers of change.

Enterprise IT projects face a bazaar of application platform offerings for cloud computing. Making a choice that lasts requires preparation and insight, while the established enterprise-generalist vendors look to offer their customers a gradual on-ramp to the cloud.

An increased focus on measurable, more-agile processes and on service orientation is altering staffing, tools and methods of software development. In parallel, governance, planning, control and quality assurance are being refined and strengthened to drive better predictability and support sourcing.

Independent software vendors (ISVs) are starting to realize the value of platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings. Forrester has applied its sizing methodology for emerging markets to this new platform market.

As the adoption of service- and Web-oriented architectures grows, and relevant technologies and standards mature, composite applications are becoming more prevalent and mainstream. However, different set of needs require specific approaches leading to adoption of products with diversified capabilities.

Software as a service is forecast to have a 19.4% compound annual growth rate through 2013 for the aggregate enterprise application markets, more than triple the total market CAGR of 5.2%. SaaS adoption is strong in select markets, but it has limited potential in other markets and subsegments.

Application infrastructure (middleware) is an essential enabling technology for business applications -- on premises or off. This research looks at the emerging application infrastructure for cloud computing.

Before selecting PaaS products to evaluate, consider two other approaches to developing applications using "cloud" architectures: direct use of an infrastructure-as-a-service product such as Amazon EC2, and development of your own data center based on "cloud" technologies and design principles.

Many organizations acquire application infrastructure technology as best of breed or one project at a time. Others intend to establish a long-term relationship with one key vendor for all or most of their application infrastructure, which requires a careful selection process.

Gartner has revised its BPMS Magic Quadrant to focus the analysis on product support for the use cases, rather than product features and functions. This change has altered our assessment of the relative strengths of the vendors since our 2007 Magic Quadrant.

The Opportunities And Risks Of PaaS For Application Development Shops.

Platform middleware technology is a key enabler for service-oriented architecture, event-driven architecture, extreme transaction processing and software as a service. Use platform middleware research to track this dynamic market as new technologies, business models and strategies keep emerging.