UK Software Market returning to growth, driven by Cloud computing

Over the last two years, the UK software market swung from growth to an unprecedented decline. Nonetheless it remains a market in excess of £8bn, and is now returning to a growth path which will strengthen over coming years.

Our latest report, “The UK Software Market: Trends and Forecasts” investigates the key trends shaping the UK software and IT services (SITS) market, and forecasts its size and shape to 2013. We have identified several trends which will drive growth and change. These are affecting all the three core segments of the software market: infrastructure, tools and applications. The report analyses the implications for the software and services industry.  

To summarise: cloud computing is a truly structural shift akin to the advent of the PC and client/server in the mid-1980s or the unbundling of IBM mainframe software in the 1960s. Within ten years, SaaS will be the dominant delivery mode for software. And within 2–3 years, more people will access the Internet over mobile platforms (including the forthcoming “slate” and iPad) than over laptops and desktop PCs – what we call the ‘Martini Moment’ – reinforcing this change in service delivery. Content will also be accessed directly via icon-driven ‘apps’ as much as through traditional browsers and search engines.

At the same time, the pressure to get more value from IT and the growing acceptance of free and open source software within the enterprise has reduced business appetite for large-scale IT projects. Instead, organisations are opting for projects with a clear and fast ROI or the subscription model of software-as-a-service. These trends were true before the downturn, but have accelerated in recent years. They will also drive a change in the supplier landscape, as previously dominant software companies find their strategic advantages whittled away in the changing IT market. TechMarketView Foundation Service clients can download the full report here.

Posted by Philip Carnelley at '08:01'