BEA Systems, Inc., the application infrastructure software company, today announced the findings of a study that demonstrates tremendous potential for enterprise-wide cost savings by leveraging an integrated Application Platform Suite (APS).

The study, based on a detailed analysis of projects and data from systems integrators and Fortune 500 enterprises, highlights significant time-to-market and cost advantages–22 percent faster, 25 percent less cost and assets–for IT initiatives implemented on an integrated platform when compared to projects implemented on a non-integrated platform.

This study compares the time-to-market and skills required for applications development, integration, deployment and maintenance on an integrated versus non-integrated platform. The study compares integrated versus non-integrated Application Platform Suites by analyzing more than fifty steps across the key stages of an application life cycle. Results reflect the inputs of numerous organizations including systems integrators and several industry-leading enterprises.

Traditionally, applications were built, integrated and managed on disparate, proprietary software platforms–often requiring costly maintenance and consulting efforts, resulting in longer time to value for customers. In October 2002, Gartner Research hypothesized that, "a mature APS–that is, a platform that is well-integrated and providing strong management and development capabilities–may be more cost effective and less risky than a best-of-breed composite-software infrastructure." This study was designed to investigate that hypothesis, comparing an IT infrastructure built on an integrated platform to that of a non-integrated platform, with the latter consisting of disparate application server, integration and portal technologies marketed under a common brand but lacking a common middleware infrastructure and an integrated development environment.

The study found that an integrated platform leads to savings during every phase of the application lifecycle, from design to post-deployment operations. Of these savings, 50 percent of the time and costs saved from the integrated platform emerge in the first year of operations. Since most applications are supported well in excess of a year, ongoing labor savings is a powerful driver in favor of an integrated platform approach, and a potential source of even greater value than has been documented in the course of this study. The full report, entitled, "Application Platform Suites An Architectural Cost Analysis," can be found at: http://www.bea.com/integratedplatforms.