CA World: Practical innovation key to survival

Economic uncertainty shouldn’t be used as an excuse to make ill-thought through business technology decisions, because it’s the choices you make when times are tough that will ensure you sink or swim when things get better.

That was the advice offered to delegates attending CA chief technology officer (CTO) Al Nugent’s keynote session at CA World in Las Vegas today.

Even without the bleak financial winds hurtling past organisations today, threatening to rip up their foundations and unsettle everything, the pressure to innovate would still be quite intense, according to Nugent.

“The future is not crystal clear and we’ve got to make those guesses beyond the one to two year normal product roadmaps, preparing for the expected and unexpected and delivering an architecture for change,” he said.

“You’re still under economic pressure independent of the global crisis. You’re feeling the pinch and you need to find a new way to deliver technology to the people who consume it in your organisation. [You need to decide] which [technologies] have long-term economic value and which are just a flash in the pan.”

Nugent referenced the explosion in IP-addressable devices coming into play as an example of the evolving landscape in which decisions are having to be made and re-made. There will be around 600 billion such devices within the next eight years which, given there are just 6.5 billion people on the planet, poses a challenge for CIOs.

“Enterprise IT management (EITM) is not just a vision. It’s our passion,” added Nugent. “One of the best parts of my job is trying to help the business units think and look a little bit into the future. We’ve got to lead and leading means innovating. Practical innovation is what will win the day.”

Click here to read more coverage from CA World 08.

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