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"I think there is a lot of hardware on the floor of most data centers that is underutilized both on the server and the storage side,"says Mark Settle.

How is the credibility of your IT organization among your R & D colleagues? Are you able to deliver what they need on time, every time? How well are you using your server inventory across locations? Are you looking to reduce your footprint in your server room, lower maintenance and labor costs, while better using your existing server space?

Join us as we talk with Mark Settle, Chief Information Officer at BMC Software, and find out how BMC's own virtualization project helped the company became even more responsive to business needs, while reducing costs and increases productivity.

Bio

Mark Settle is the Chief Information Officer at BMC Software. Mark joined BMC in June 2008. He has served as the CIO of four Fortune 300 companies: Corporate Express, Arrow Electronics, Visa International, and Occidental Petroleum. He is a former Air Force officer and NASA Program Scientist.

Questions

• What else was unique about this, especially as compared to what you've done in the past?
• When you first started the project, how did you describe the goals to Senior Management? Did you end up meeting or exceeding their expectations, how did all that go?
• Why didn't you think the 18 to 1 ratio was possible? What made it possible?
• When we talk about the process of configuring these new tools for improvement and productivity of the virtual servers, is there a kind of cookbook approach that will work? Does it have to be totally unique for every situation?
• So stepping back, what was the learning curve like?
• What are some of the key things you learned along the way? Were there some unexpected benefits?

Resources

BMC Industry Insights: Uncover the Benefits of Virtualization (pdf)

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How has the role of the software architect changed through the years and what will it look like in the future? Jeff Hodges, manager of the Client Architecture group at BMC Software, Inc., says companies have traditionally looked at architects for their specialties with certain databases, applications, or systems. Companies with more mature IT organizations are realizing today that this role has evolved into that of someone who not only understands their technology-specialty areas, but also what is happening, on a larger scale, to the organization. This emerging role of the business service management architect is the key to helping IT successfully align and support the business.

As business service management (BSM) becomes a reality for any company, the role of the BSM architect becomes more and more critical to the organization. Jeff believes that this role of trusted advisor will evolve. He thinks more vertical or industry specializations will naturally occur and that more specialized training and education will become available, not only at BMC, but everywhere. But instead of focusing expertise solely around a particular technology, he advises, the BSM architect should understand your IT organization, the specific changes that need to happen to it, and how technology integrates into, and impacts, your business.

Resources

Services at BMC Software

Bio

Jeff Hodges manages the Software Consulting Client Architect team at BMC Software, Inc. Jeff has over 14 years of experience managing people, process, and technology to successfully develop and implement integrated IT Service Management solutions. He was formerly an R&D engineer and R&D team manager for HP, professional services consultant for Remedy Corporation, consulting manager for Siemens, independent consultant, and a project manager for Citigroup and client architect for BMC Software. Jeff holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from California State University at Sacramento, California.