Evans Data Poll Says J2EE Hits Tipping Point in the SMB Space

Published: March 28, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The Java programming language has been around for more than a decade, and the high-end Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) implementation of that language, which is used to make Web-style applications as well as serious enterprise applications--including ERP suites, was a bit overkill for most small companies and a lot of midrange firms who had considerably more sophisticated experience with third-generation programming languages like COBOL and RPG as well as a smattering of C or C++.

Market researcher Evans Data spends all of its time taking the pulse of developers around the world, and according to its latest poll at SMB shops, it looks like J2EE has hit a tipping point. In the past six months, developers at SMB shops have increased their J2EE use in applications to the point where 40 percent of those polled use that Java technology to create their applications, and another 13 percent said they will do so within the next two years. And about 60 percent of the 400 developers polled (who worked at companies with fewer than 1,000 employees in total) said they would use Java, Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE), or J2EE technologies during 2006, with 20 percent saying they would spend the majority of their time coding using these Java tools. These same developers are projecting that this time next year, about 70 percent of the population of developers at their SMB shops will be using Java in one form or another, and that 35 percent of them will be doing so as their dominant development platform.

"Developers in SMBs do not have as many resources or the budgets that larger development shops have, so they need to go with what works now, not what they can learn and put into use six months or a year from now," says John Andrews, president of Evans Data. "Java works, it has worked for a long time and there's a tremendous body of knowledge and expertise surrounding the technology. The race to market is critical for the SMB developer and, by using Java, they are able to meet their deadlines and budgetary restraints."