SMBs spur IBM Rational growth in India

BANGALORE: Led by a strong growth in the number of small and mid-sized (SMB) customers that IBM Rational added during the first half of 2008, the IBM Rational software business has grown significantly in India.

Analyst firm, Gartner, Inc., has ranked IBM as the worldwide market share leader in the application development marketplace based on total software revenue for 2007, IBM said in a statement.

According to Gartner, this marks the seventh consecutive year that IBM maintained its leadership in the application development software market. A recent report by Evans Data Corporation on Indian Software Developers’ Market indicates a very healthy and growing software development industry in India.

According to the report, the number of software developers in India is forecast to grow at about 23 per cent annually over the next few years growing from 1.8 million in 2008 to 2.7 million in 2010.

This growth in number of developers along with increased awareness and traction around quality assurance, testing, and configuration management are the biggest factors which are driving the growth of application development and the quality lifecycle tools market in the country.

“IBM has created a true development powerhouse, and India is an important market for us. The customer base in India has been expanding rapidly and we see a lot of adoption of IBM Rational software in India. The System Integrators and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) have been choosing IBM’s software development offerings to help companies become more nimble, as they are using an increasingly geographically-dispersed and virtual workforce to remain competitive”, said Pradeep Nair, director, Software Group, IBM India/ South Asia.

IBM recently announced certification testing on 22 Rational software products available to university students at minimal cost, expanding opportunities for both employers and IT Professional worldwide.

India and China are the first two markets to take the advantage of discounted online certification testing for IBM Rational software tools.

The new program has been launched in India and China at more than 2,100 institutions.