There's a new business building around spreadsheets called spreadsheet management, and it'll skyrocket more than 33-times to $500 million in 2011, according to a report released Tuesday by Ventana Research.

The relatively new business—it totaled just $15 million in the past year—is being built around the millions of old spreadsheet applications that were developed months and years ago, but are still present in companies' financial records.

"Spreadsheets aren't going away," said Robert Kugel, senior VP and research director for financial performance management at Ventana, in a statement. "Many earlier attempts to control them have been rejected because they limit the flexibility and ease of use that make spreadsheets indispensable in the first place."

Ventana said adoption of spreadsheet management software will be most aggressive in heavily regulated businesses such as financial services. The software is aimed at finding, managing, and monitoring old errors in old audit trails that were created in standalone spreadsheets but now are often connected via online storage methods.

"Errors in spreadsheets have led to large operating losses and even earnings restatements by public companies," Ventana said. "Existing spreadsheet software does not offer a practical way to audit and manage the thousands of these most important spreadsheets."