Cloud computing forces CIO change

Beverley Head
Thursday, 23 June 2011 10:31

Business IT - Networking

When Mark Settle joined BMC Software as its chief information officer four years ago it was a mainly an on-premises software user, but he's been rolling out at least one Software as a Service (SaaS) application a quarter, and the company now runs a portfolio of more than 30 different SaaS tools. The new cloud computing paradigm demands a whole new approach from a CIO as Mr Settle has learned.

'A year ago I would have not thought we would get to 30 SaaS tools, I might have thought ten,' he said. But such has been the speed of SaaS development that it has been impossible to ignore the trend.

The reasons for the shift are varied: 'The time to market is much faster than with licensed software. It can be 90'”120 days to go into production with SaaS tools. With licensed software you'd struggle to do that in less than six to nine months,' he told iTWire during a visit to Sydney this week.

In addition Mr Settle said SaaS allowed organisations to reduce their own hardware footprint, and also cut their IT headcount.

Before Mr Settle joined BMC the company had an IT group of around 750 people. Today the company has just 420 people running its IT operations, even though the company has grown during the last four years.

That lower headcount requirement was important with many organisations finding it harder to find adequate IT skills, especially those organisations based outside the main economic centres. 'Our schools are not producing enough IT skills,' he said, a refrain common in Australia.

He acknowledged that there are still some niggles with moving to the cloud. An HR application supplied SaaS by an Israeli vendor for example required some small currency changes to meet BMC's needs.