May 20th, 2009
Time to get bullish on SOA, IT, and the economy (2)
We’ve seen it happen time and time again — times of turmoil always equate to times of tremendous new opportunities. The great recession of 1980-82 gave rise to the PCs as technology converged with peoples’ needs for quick, cheap computing solutions. The downturn of 1990-91 spawned the client/server movement, which then kicked into the great Internet boom. The recession of 2001-2002 created the environment which gave rise to Web services, SOA, and analytics. What is emerging from the latest downturn?
Many companies providing solutions ranging from online communities to network solutions are thriving. Eldon Mast, tech executive and economist, has been doing a great job of cutting through the endless doom, gloom, and hopelessness that’s been thrown at us over the past few months. In his most recent post, he observes that this has become a time of great opportunity for many tech firms and professionals.
Yes, there have been layoffs and there is pain, but many tech companies are seizing the moment and accelerating into their markets. Eldon cites the example of Bay Area-based Lithium Technologies which creates online communities for its clients’ customers, which has almost doubled its staffing levels in 2008, and continues to grow. Another tech firm, Responsys, an email marketing service, intends to increase staffing by almost 20%. “We’re looking at this market as a real opportunity to invest big.” says CEO Dan Springer.
Atlanta-based Cbeyond, which provides voice and data network solutions for small businesses, expects 2009 revenue to grow about 20 percent. “It recently invested tens of millions of dollars and added more than 600 jobs in an aggressive headquarters expansion,” Eldon reports. “We’ll likely double the size of our business over … the next three to four [years],” says CEO James Geiger. “We’re not just surviving in this economy, we are thriving in this economy.”
And what about our favorite topic here at the SOA blogsite? You may recall we ran market predictions that projected growth for SOA-related solutions at a clip of about 17% a year over the next few years. Granted, the “SOA” market is difficult to measure, and I doubt if anyone can really capture all the elements that would go into such a market. But 17% growth in SOA-related things is not too shabby.
Joe McKendrick is an author and consultant with deep knowledge and insights regarding trends and developments in the technology industry. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 05/21/09
