THE DATA WAREHOUSING TOOLS MARKET SEEN TOPPING $8 BILLION BY 2002, REPORTS IDC

Increased adoption of data warehousing and the Internet are seen as strong influencing factors in the significant growth of the data warehousing tools market, according to the Data Warehouse Tools: 1998 Worldwide Markets and Trends report released by IDC. A 23% compound annual growth rate is anticipated over the forecast period. The greatest growth will be seen in the information access tools area. ``As data warehouse implementations evolve from the early stages of implementation to final deployment, information access tools which enable more users to access the warehouse will become increasingly strategic,'' said Henry Morris, Director, IDC's Data Warehousing and Information Access research and advisory service.

The Data Warehouse Tools: 1998 Worldwide Markets and Trends report is devoted entirely to tools used to build, manage, and deploy data warehouses and includes analysis of the following markets:

data management -- includes DBMS software which are used to manage data in the data warehouse

warehouse generation -- used for design, cleansing, transformation, loading and administration

information access -- includes OLAP, Query and Reporting, EIS and data mining tools which enable end-users to access and analyze information stored in the data warehouse

Key Findings

• Information access tools will account for a 44% share of the market in 2002, compared to 27% in 1997
• The warehouse generation market is already fragmented with 4 submarkets spanning 12 niche markets, and may well become increasingly difficult for any one vendor to establish a dominant position.
• Consolidation in the database management tools market will continue as enterprise data warehouse RDBMS products become increasingly concentrated in those few vendors with the critical mass of technology and channels to maintain both technical and sales leadership.

IDC's Data Warehouse Tools: 1998 Worldwide Markets and Trends (#B17622) report provides a comprehensive analysis of the worldwide market for data warehousing tools and includes a discussion of market and vendor performance, key events in 1997 and IDC's five-year forecast and assumptions. A companion report on the ``buy'' market, Analytic Applications 1998 Worldwide Markets and Trends (#B17524) is also available. This provides a detailed view of the worldwide analytic applications market by cross-industry and vertical-industry applications. The reports are available for purchase by calling Cheryl Toffel at 1-800-343-4952.

About IDC

International Data Corporation is the information technology industry's most comprehensive resource on worldwide IT markets, trends, products, vendors, and geographies. IDC provides data, analysis and advisory services to the world's leading IT suppliers as well as IS professionals in finance, insurance, entertainment, advertising, consumer goods and publishing. IDC's research and opinions are based on the results of more than 300,000 end-user surveys, in-depth competitive analysis, broad technology coverage, and strategic analysis. IDC is committed to providing global research with local content through its 500 analysts in more than 40 countries worldwide. Additional information on IDC can be found on its Web site at http://www.idc.com