New Evans Data Survey Reports .Net and J2EE APIs Share Web Services Integration; Lack of Established Standards Main Obstacle to Creating Web Services

Business Wire, April 29, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 2002

Evans Data Corp. today announced findings from its North American Developer Survey indicating developers are much more likely to use Microsoft's .NET APIs or Sun's J2EE APIs for web services application to application integration than other methods but neither is dominant.

Evans' report, an in-depth survey of over 800 software developers, found that .NET and J2EE APIs share the lead as most likely application integrations of web services at 28% and 27% respectively. The next closest approach for app to app integration of web services is custom code at 11%. Proprietary EAI products accounted for just 4.2% of responses. Almost half of developers surveyed expect Java and .NET applications to intermix in their companies and nearly 40% expect to use XML to integrate the two. Web services may change how applications are developed and interact as much as the way that the Web has changed how information is shared now.

More than half of all developers expect to develop Web services within the next six months and forty percent are already working on developing them today. Web services are rapidly gaining prominence with more than 9 in 10 developers expecting their companies to use Web services in the next two years. According to the survey, the main obstacles to creating web services are; the lack of established web services standards, concerns about end-to-end security and other security issues and understanding the architecture.

"A clear leader in the battle for Web services has yet to emerge. Developers are split between those who plan to use .NET for application-to-application integration and those who plan to use J2EE. In fact, most developers expect the two technologies to co-exist within their companies," said Jay Dixit, an analyst at Evans Data Corp.

Fielded in March 2002, the North American Developer Survey noted other key development-related trends:

-- Security issues continue to be an important factor in software development
with biometrics (34%) as the leading choice for best authentication method
ahead of passwords, digital signatures, smart cards and tokens

-- Of currently proposed authentication standards, the three options Microsoft
Passport (38.5%), Liberty Alliance (19.4%) and AOL/Time Warner's Magic Carpet
(2.4%) were overshadowed by the "Other" responses (54.8%) indicating a large
group uncommitted to any standard

The bi-annual North American Developer Survey series is a multi-year survey based on in-depth interviews with more than 800 U.S. and Canadian developers that offers comprehensive information and trend patterning on platforms and operating system migrations, Web services, OSS and Linux, language usage, Internet development, Java development, architecture and technology adoption, and tools and development issues. The report also cross tabulates various data into developer segments and language usage.

About Evans Data Corporation

Evans Data Corporation (www.evansdata.com) provides market research focused on the software development community. The company maintains a panel of more than 14,000 developers worldwide. Custom quantitative and qualitative research is available, as well as subscriptions to the North American Developer Survey, the International Developer Survey, the Enterprise Development Management Issues survey series, the Linux Developer series, the Database Developer Survey, the Wireless Developer Survey and the Embedded Systems Developer Survey.

For more information: EDC can be reached by phone: 800/831-3080 or 831/425-8451, by email: info@evansdata.com or on the web: www.evansdata.com. In Europe, contact Jo Iaconianni, Business and Market Research, 44(0)1663-765115 joi@bandmr.co.uk; in Japan: Philip Davies, ODS, 03-3486-2676 Davies@ods.co.jp. EDC is a division of the American Science Corp.