The International Data Center (IDC) has released a report which reveals that Microsoft remains the largest software vendor globally through 2012 revenues and overall market share.

Figures from the Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker put the Washington-based tech giant at a 17.1% market share, lower than its 2011 figure of 17.4% but still nearly twice as far ahead as its nearest competitors, IBM and Oracle.

IBM has an 8.5% market share, compared to Oracle’s 8.1%, with SAP and Symantec comprising the top five.

Elsewhere, the report provided further evidence that cloud computing is at the epicentre of enterprise growth.

For many cloud-based segments, including data access, CRM applications and security software, their growth rate was double the rate for enterprise software overall.

Yet the overall growth in the software market for 2012 was at 3.6%, less than half the overall growth of 2010 and 2011 …