The Emergence of the 3rd Platform: How Is System Software Impacted?

This IDC study considers the forthcoming broad industry movement to what IDC calls the 3rd Platform and the impact of that movement on the server side of next-generation solutions. The 3rd Platform is the next-generation compute platform (mobile device accessed, cloud based) that will supplement 1st Platform (mainframes) and 2nd Platform (distributed computing) solutions already in the market today.

"The coming of the 3rd Platform changes many of the game rules and moves the entry point upmarket in a number of ways," says Al Gillen, program VP, System Software, IDC. "We like to say this is a revolutionary transition that will be adopted in an evolutionary way. The truth is there remains much that needs to change, but that change will take place over a long term, and much of today's infrastructure software lives on in tomorrow's world."