Forrester Research

Analyst's Photo	Name and Title	Contact information
	Stefan Ried, Ph.D. Principal Analyst

Research Coverage

Application Development, Application Development Processes & Tools, Application Infrastructure Technologies, Application Platforms & Programming Strategy, Application Server Platforms, Architecture & Technology Strategy, Cloud Computing, Computer Architectures, EA Governance Processes, EA Organizational Structure, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Practices, Enterprise Service Bus, IT Infrastructure & Operations, Message-Oriented Middleware, Professional Services, Repositories & Registries, SOA & Web Services, SOA Governance, Sales, Marketing, & Product Strategy, Service-Oriented Architecture, Strategic Application Planning

Research Focus

Stefan serves tech industry Vendor Strategy Professionals in predicting and quantifying tech industry disruptions. Stefan has a deep expertise in middleware technologies and can advise strategists on shifts in the IT industry caused by the ongoing move to business process platforms and the development of new generation middleware capable of addressing fresh challenges presented by cloud computing.

Stefan spent more than 12 years in leading engineering and product management and product marketing roles at international software vendors. Stefan publishes and consults vendors on product strategies, messaging, positioning and portfolio development, and the investment in emerging technology to improve business results. He helps system integrators and ISVs select appropriate platforms for their service and product delivery. Stefan's wide coverage of business process platforms includes SOA, BPM, complex event processing, and Web 2.0, as well as application development models in the cloud.

Previous Work Experience

Stefan came to Forrester from Software AG, where he headed product management for integration technology (now WebMethods). Prior to this, he was leading the product management division for SAP's infrastructure Netweaver.

In addition to the vendor side, Stefan held a senior management role in the IT service spinoff of Deutsche Post in 2002 and was responsible for the company's portfolio management. He also led a system architecture division addressing consulting challenges on enterprise architecture across Deutsche Post and DHL.

Prior to Deutsche Post, Stefan acquired decent experience at the European eCommerce vendor Intershop and a startup company in the CRM space.

Stefan has had the chance to gather wide experience of the demand and supply side of software technology and was personally involved in large enterprise architecture, middleware, and M&A projects.

Education

A native of Germany, Stefan is a graduate of physics at Stuttgart University and was promoted to Dr. rer. nat. (Doctor of Natural Science) in physics by the Max Planck Institute, Germany. His thesis explained pattern-forming phenomena in complex fluids based on calculations on supercomputers.