Asia's infrastructure software to grow 12 percent

The infrastructure management software market in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, is forecast to recover in 2010, returning to double-digit growth rates leading up to 2014, according to a new report.

In a statement released Thursday, research house IDC predicted a 12 percent year-on-year growth, on the back of pent-up demand.

"Business has regained confidence now and we are seeing mission-critical projects and priority projects linked to business needs lead the way in the infrastructure management software market in [the region]," Daphne Chung, IDC's Asia-Pacific senior research manager of infrastructure software research, said in the report.

She noted that larger vendors had been leveraging resources to bridge financial and skills gaps faced by their clients, in order to help their users through the tough times.

Themes such as virtualization, optimization and data centers were more prevalent.

With the market on the mend, vendor pipelines are looking healthier. However, cautious spending remains.

Chung noted that the recession's impact shaped project focus toward business value and returns on investment (ROI). Shorter, modular-type projects were also more typical, she added.

Companies such as Cisco Systems, EMC and VMWare, have also been busy gearing up for the recovery, forming alliances and implemented initiatives that target data centers.

IDC also identified the key growth opportunities in the Greater China, Southeast Asia and India regions, driven by emerging markets such as China and India, and favoring storage software and systems and network management software.

The more mature Australia and New Zealand regions are also expected to show good show, particularly in the storage software markets, driven by more advanced functionality requirements.