This IDC study presents the results of a recent IDC survey of 700 IT decision makers and line-of-business (LoB) IT influencers from small, midsize, and large European organizations. The respondents were questioned on their business and IT priorities, spending plans, and software procurement processes. This study specifically looks at the business and IT priorities and how they shape the overall spending on middleware software in 2012, broken down by country, industry, and organization size.

"After a couple of years of relative recovery in software spending, IDC's 2012 European software survey demonstrates that the ongoing economic challenges across the eurozone are still a major factor. Spending indications from the survey shows an overall average decline, in line with the overall software market, in middleware software spend in 2012. However, when looking at the planned spend proportions in more detail, the Western European middleware software market shows a strong level of sustained or increased planned investment in 2012. IDC believes that middleware software is key to unlock pockets of data across LoB functions in alignment to the business priorities identified in this survey," said Spencer Izard, research manager, IDC European Systems Management and Middleware Software.