International Data Corporation (IDC) has released the latest results from its Worldwide Semiannual System Management Software Tracker. The Tracker monitors more than 130 vendors globally in a total of 49 countries, providing biannual market size, vendor share, and forecast data for the six functional markets that comprise the system management software market in IDC's software taxonomy.

"The system management software market achieved double-digit growth in 2011 although growth in the second half of the year slowed by 3 percentage points compared to the first half," said Patrick Melgarejo, director, Worldwide Software Trackers. "The Workload Scheduling and Automation (WSA), Performance Management, and Change and Configuration Management (CCM) markets maintained the best growth among the functional markets while the Output Management market performed flat and was negative in the second half of the year."

Continuing with their strong performance, the WSA and CCM markets are forecast to show the highest growth rates through 2016 and help the overall system management software market to achieve a solid compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.7 percent for the forecast period. In contrast, the Event Management and Output Management markets are forecast to underperform the over market, achieving CAGRs of 2.9 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.

A graphic illustrating the relative shares of the system management software functional markets over the 2012-2016 forecast period is available at IDC.com. The chart is intended for public use in online news articles and social media. Instructions on how to embed this graphic can be found by viewing this press release on IDC.com.

The top performing regions in terms of growth rates in 2011 were Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMA), Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), and Japan. For now, Japan is the only one out of these 3 regions that surpasses $1 billion in annual revenue. Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) is forecast to reach the $1 billion threshold in 2015.

"Although slowing in the second half of the year, the 2011 results show continued healthy growth in worldwide system management software revenue," said Tim Grieser, program vice president, Enterprise System Management Software. "Growth was fueled by increases in IT spending due to continuing economic recovery and new investments in managing virtualized and cloud infrastructures. Automation to simplify and optimize IT operations and reduce costs continued as a key factor."

Only five vendors (IBM, BMC, HP, CA Technologies, and Microsoft) achieved worldwide revenues of more than $1 billion. The difference between the leader and the last position in this short list fell from 7.7 percentage points in 2008 to 4.2 percentage points in 2011, meaning that the competitive scenario is likely to become more heated over the next few years. Microsoft, the number 5 vendor, had growth above the overall market in 2011 and is particularly strong in one of the top growing functional markets (CCM) and is expected to close the gap with the top 4 very quickly. On the other hand, IBM, BMC, and CA Technologies are very strong in another top growing market (WSA). Besides the top 5 list, the following vendors also exhibited above average performance in 2011: Hitachi, NEC, VMware, Quest Software, Citrix, ASG, Dell, Cisco, ServiceNow, and Kaseya, among others.

IDC's Worldwide Semiannual System Management Software Tracker provides total market size and vendor share for the following technology areas: event management; workload scheduling and automation; output management; performance management; change and configuration management; and problem management. Measurement for this Tracker is total software revenue, which includes license plus maintenance plus SaaS and other subscription revenue. The Tracker covers up to 49 countries in total and monitors the performance of close to 130 vendors in the market. Annual five-year market forecasts for this Tracker are updated semiannually and include five-year annual market projections. Forecasts are available at worldwide, regional, and country levels.

For more information about IDC's Worldwide Semiannual Software Trackers, contact Kathy Nagamine at 650-350-6423 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..