“On-demand and management software will be CA’s top priority”

Not willing to be left behind in the on-demand computing race, Computer Associates too has jumped into the fray and made management software a priority. Yogesh Gupta, CA’s CTO, in an interview with Shipra Arora spells out the company’s strategy in the on-demand computing arena and how CA plans to beat its heavyweight competition that is also chanting the same mantra

Do you foresee a revival in new technology investments, specially in the context of a country like India?

We are starting to see a revival in technology investments, but specifically in those areas which help customers make better use of their existing IT infrastructure. Customers are gravitating to the streamlined, self-managing enterprise—a move, which will allow them to recognise productivity gains, cost savings and improved user satisfaction while keeping overall infrastructure expenses under control.

We are also seeing a growing interest in on-demand computing. Many customers have been disillusioned with some of the early approaches to on-demand computing, which calls for extensive and costly hardware and outsourcing initiatives. At CA we have delivered a new set of management software solutions for realising the benefits of on-demand computing. This new software spans enterprise storage and security management solutions for a more complete on-demand solution.

We’ve found that customers worldwide, including India ones, are really gravitating to this model. In 2004, CIOs will continue to emphasise on cost control and conservative IT spending patterns while attempting to better align their IT infrastructure with changing business requirements.

What are CA’s latest initiatives? What is your future roadmap and vision for the company’s Indian operations in terms of channels, marketing, solutions, and so on?

Our number one priority is to deliver the best possible management software solutions and services to our customers. Several other initiatives fall under this umbrella. Managing on-demand computing will continue to be another area of focus for CA. To that end, we have released integrated solutions that can manage complete on-demand computing needs. These integrated solutions span from network and systems management to as storage and security.

CA will focus on innovation—a key competitive differentiator. Over the past three years, we’ve invested $2 billion in R&D. Our innovations in management software will affect a number of emerging sectors, including Web services, wireless and Linux, which are important for customers this year.

What is the overall strategy of CA to leverage its India development centre?

Today, only a small percentage of our overall development activity happens from India. However, we have high expectations from the development centre and the extent to which it will grow over the next three years depends on the success of the team here. At CA, we are a meritocracy and we reward success with growth and additional responsibility.

The Indian development centre in Hyderabad is focusing on core corporate initiatives like management software, on-demand computing, wireless, Web services, etc. It will not be a hub for just some specific technology development. Instead, it will focus on all areas of development.

What are the emerging trends in on-demand computing and CA’s strategy in aligning itself with these?

Management is, by far, the most important trend in the on-demand computing sector. Customers do not want to replace their hardware infrastructure, or outsource IT to third parties to get the benefits of on-demand computing. CA will continue to develop and release new management software that helps customers get the benefits of on-demand computing from their existing investments. Like many global customers, Indian customers are still in the nascent stages with their on-demand computing initiatives. We expect to see an increase in new on-demand computing initiatives in India this year and through 2006 as customers become more aware of the benefits and the ease with which they can get them while leveraging their existing IT infrastructure.