CA bets big on cloud computing

CA is expecting a cloud computing revolution

LAS VEGAS: Software management firm CA kicked off its CA World show in Las Vegas on Sunday night with a new name and the announcement of big plans for cloud computing.

Chief executive Bill McCracken began his keynote by promoting the importance of cloud services within CA and for the rest of the industry, predicting it will be as significant a shift as previous moves to client/server computing and the web.

"I don't think [cloud is] going to happen, I know it's going to happen," he said, adding that within a year there will have been a significant change in the technology industry based on firms' use of cloud services.

McCracken cited the example of Netflix, a US company which offers a DVD rental service alongside online movie downloads, to demonstrate the value of cloud.

Netflix uses CA's Nimsoft monitoring software to manage its IT capacity requirements. At peak times such as Saturday nights, Netflix can call on a public cloud from Yahoo or Google to provide the extra capacity on-demand.

Customers were also reassured over CA's emphasis on cloud security.

"About four or five months ago, one of our largest competitors said that mission critical apps wouldn't make it into the cloud. I'd probably have said the same thing if I was him as he doesn't know how to deal with it," McCracken said.

In an effort to further the uptake of cloud computing, CA also unveiled Cloud Commons, a community web site with resources and guidance from industry experts, but more importantly a ratings system for cloud services based on scores from analysts and business users.

CA referred to Cloud Commons as a Trip Advisor or Internet Movie Database for the cloud world, explaining that, while CA is funding the initiative, it is open to any organisation that wants to participate.

Services that have been rated so far include Amazon EC2, Microsoft Exchange Online, IBM LotusLive and Gmail.

However, the success of the initiative will rest on getting ongoing input from business users to offer a useful comparison database of services and vendors, as there are already several cloud resources available on the web.

During his keynote, McCracken also announced that CA will now be known as CA Technologies in an effort to define CA as a technology company. "I got tired of Googling CA and getting California," he quipped.

The rebrand comes four years after the firm ditched the Computer Associates name to distance itself from past financial irregularities under the leadership of Sanjay Kumar, now serving a prison sentence for his role in the accounting fraud.

The name change announcement seemed quite apologetic, however. McCracken referred to it only briefly towards the end of his keynote, and during an earlier EMEA press briefing it was not mentioned. Journalists were simply handed a sheet of paper with the news as they left the conference room.

McCracken took to the stage for the opening keynote after only four months in the role, although he has been on the CA board since 2005. McCracken took over from John Swainson, another ex-IBM executive brought in to replace Kumar.

McCracken certainly seems well placed to help CA shed its image of riding on the back of others' innovation, which has been one of the messages from CA World so far this year. He led IBM's PC business for many years, and has 45 years' experience in the IT industry.