CA Technologies Cloud Confrontation
Cloud computing has been talked about so heavily the last few years it almost made you believe that 100% adoption would happen almost immediately. What is somewhat amusing is that using services in the cloud isn’t really as new as some people believe. Many consumers and business folks are now just being made aware that they are using cloud services. Also raising awareness is the fact that today’s network speeds are facilitating the possibility of widespread cloud adoption by consumers and businesses when before it was not possible.

CA Technologies found itself in a position that many IT shops and vendors have struggled with over the past few years. Deciding between trying to keep intact what you had worked so hard to build and introducing a quantum shift in your IT business model was quite the conundrum. CA had a profitable balance sheet built on thirty plus years of accrued knowledge and experience. However, their management was savvy enough to realize that they couldn’t rest on their laurels. They identified that they had to position themselves for the move to cloud computing or possibly get left behind by competitors and the industry. CA did react quickly by acquiring companies to enhance their cloud portfolio offerings. While some may have viewed this as a reactionary move by the company, I believe their strong leadership did so based on facts and a new company strategy. In the years prior to the cloud acquisitions, CA had undergone many changes including a name change and a large mainframe software management overhaul. The result of all these changes saw the company still growing at a slower pace than the market. It was clear to management that in order to enable additional growth a change in strategy was necessary. CA’s new strategy included changing their old business model of focusing on vertical markets