IDC: Business spending on SOA to grow 25% over next three years

In case you were wondering, SOA is doing fine, thank you.  And growing, big time.

That's the word from Ruediger Spies, vice-president of enterprise applications at IDC Central Europe, at IDC's SOA and Beyond Conference 2010 in London. Spies adds that interest in cloud computing is also a catalyst for new SOA sales. Anh Nguyen provides a report on Spies' statements in Network World.

Spies also repeated the mantra that SOA is about long-term vision, not short-term returns. "Typically, SOA projects have a longer life span than ERP systems, which last around 12 to 13 years," he said. SOA experience also sets out a roadmap for successful BPM and cloud integration as well, he added.

Twenty-five percent growth in the market sounds pretty healthy. But not clear is how IDC defined this market.  Middleware?  Development tools?  SOA-enabled applications? Consulting and integration services? Products specifically labeled as SOA tools, such as governance software?  BPM and cloud solutions?  All of the above?

Now that you've whetted our appetites, tell us more, IDC!