Mainframes like IBM's System z are integral to SOA almost by default because they contain a large portion of the world's business information, the study suggests. Thirty percent of respondents who work for companies with 10,000 or more employees said between 51 percent and 75 percent of their company's data is managed and stored on a mainframe, according to the study.

Meanwhile, nearly 23 percent of respondents said their company is undergoing a SOA project, and another third said a SOA is in the planning or consideration stages.