Worldwide Software Configuration Management 2009-2013 Forecast

This IDC study provides a worldwide forecast of the software configuration management (SCM) market from 2009 to 2013. IDC's initial sizing of the worldwide software configuration management market for 2008 puts SCM with growth of around 7.7% over 2007, which is comparable with our expectations in 4Q08. However, the overall growth for the forecast period year over year is reduced significantly, as is the CAGR, which IDC in this initial assessment puts at 5.6% (down from 6.9% in 4Q08). The bleak economy, contracting businesses, and drastically reduced IT spend account in large part for these lower SCM assessments for IDC. However, there are certain factors that will insulate SCM more than some markets and enable some (minimal) growth (down to 3.3% in 2009 and 4.5% in 2010).

"2008 built on the return of the software configuration management market to robust growth, marked by ongoing coordination across life-cycle phases to begin to target areas such as complex sourcing, build management, security, and Web 2.0 development," says Melinda Ballou, IDC program director, Application Life-Cycle Management. "Even in a difficult economic climate, we expect to see some growth - though slower - in 2009 and 2010 and throughout the forecast period, as the need for services support, complex sourcing, and improved software development team productivity drive ongoing demand for software configuration and change management tools."