Mission-Critical Applications Study

In December 2009, IDC released a study (sponsored by Microsoft) based on a survey of corporate IT departments to assess current practices surrounding mission-critical applications. The survey gathered data from more than 900 enterprise customers across the United States, France, UK, and Germany.

This survey data demonstrates the leadership of the Microsoft platform across several product categories, and provides strong evidence that customers today are betting their businesses on the Microsoft platform and developer tools. You can find a quick summary of the survey methodology and key findings below.

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What are Mission-Critical Applications?

For this survey, mission-critical applications are defined as: “Business applications, excluding email, that would bring your company to a stop if they were not running. Mission-critical applications are typically supported and managed by a central IT staff. Examples of such applications are airline reservation systems and order processing for a retail store chain.”

Key Takeaways

• Windows Server has #1 server OS share (52.7%) for deployed mission-critical applications
• Windows Server and .NET are the #1 (54.1%) deployed application server
• .NET usage exceeds Java across all sizes of enterprises
• Windows Server is the #1 OS used (46%) by deployed mission-critical Java applications
• SharePoint leads (over IBM WebSphere) as the #1 portal used by enterprises’ primary mission-critical application
• SQL Server leads (over Oracle) as the #1 database used by enterprises’ primary mission-critical application
• BizTalk Server leads (over Oracle) as the #1 process integration technology used by enterprises’ primary mission-critical application
• Microsoft leads as the #1 (58.6%) vendor for service-oriented architectures

Survey Methodology

• Microsoft did not participate in or influence respondent identification or selection
• Respondents were screened and interviewed via web and telephone
• Company size was equal to/greater than 1,000 employees (60% of respondents from companies of 5,000 or more employees; median size of company included in study was 6,000 employees)
• Respondents must be IT decision maker, developer, or architect
• Respondents must have influence over technology-related decisions at their organization
• Respondents must be materially involved and play a leading role in mission-critical application integration or new application development