CA head presses for change

CA World keynote sees Bill McCracken prepare the vendor for industry shift

McCracken: Companies that don’t change go to the dumpster

Bill McCracken, chief executive of CA, was quick to jump on the cloud computing bandwagon in his keynote at CA World.

Speaking in the vast conference hall of the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas in front of 7,000 partners, customers and staff, he said change was coming.

“We are here to talk about the future of IT. In a year’s time IT will not be the same as this year. Lots of things will change and we will make decisions about what our priorities are in applications. We need to look at how IT helps businesses run their businesses better.”

He said that despite the hype, the cloud is definitely going to happen.

“I came into the industry 45 years ago. I have seen every evolution and inflection of the industry. I think the cloud is going to happen. Change is taking place in this industry. This is driven by the economy, technology and user needs. When things change we need to change,” he said.

McCracken highlighted the importance to keep changing, using examples of Fortune 500 companies in 1955 and 1985.

“Of those companies in 1955 only 71 remain. There are only 107 left from the Fortune 500 companies from 1985. Companies need to change, and those that don’t go to the dumpster,” he said.

“We are right now coming out of probably the worst economic downturn in seven decades. This started in the US and spread around the world. Now companies are required to do more with less.

“One of the things a chief executive has to do when looking at change is finding out how to make changes rapidly enough to make it competitive. When trying to implement a new business model, one of the first things that has to change is the IT,” he said.

“Security in the cloud is one of our largest concerns. One of our competitors made a statement that no mission-critical applications could go into the cloud. But we are making security in the cloud a priority for CA.”

McCracken also highlighted the importance of channel partners, but said who supplies the IT is down to the customer.

“We work through business partners, systems integrators, distributors and resellers, but some want direct. I ask four questions to customers – who by, what, why and where do they want their IT delivered and we will do it how they want it to be done, whether this is through partners or directly,” he said.

In terms of acquisitions, McCracken said the vendor would continue to look at opportunities, but had also spent two-thirds of a billion dollars on developing its own technology.

Speaking of the name change from CA to CA Technologies, McCracken said it was to reflect the importance of CA’s legacy but also to show the new technologies the vendor is providing going into the future of IT.

“Also I was sick of Googling CA and getting California,” he joked. “CA understands the market and the industry. We understand how to get there and where it is going. We want to earn our position in the industry.”