BMC targets hybrid cloud environments for growth

Robert Beauchamp told ZDNet Asia in an interview that the company is focused on providing its customers with "dynamic, integrated business service management" tools to better handle the complexities of straddling between private and public cloud networks. The executive was in town recently for a short stopover to meet up with local business partners.

Beauchamp said most large enterprises would have legacy IT systems that make up their private cloud network and for these customers, the challenge would be to move from a consistent datacenter environment to a state "where everything can be anywhere".

To do so, they would need the tools to manage disparate virtual environments and other considerations such as security, compliance and portability for their apps, he added.

"Cloud computing is just another mode of service delivery and what we’re interested in is to provide a suite of software to manage all the various components of the hybrid data center," said Beauchamp.

Asia a rising star
Beauchamp also revealed that Asia is a "high growth area" for the company and the region is performing better than BMC’s overalll performance. While its global bookings, which include contract signings, software licensing and maintenance, grew 14 percent in the first quarter of this year, the Asia-Pacific region expanded by 35 percent during the same period. Similarly, just for BMC’s license business alone, the overall growth was 27 percent for the same quarter while the region grew 38 percent.

Furthermore, because of the high growth, BMC has been growing its business here "pretty dramatically", he said.

One area that has been strengthened is the company’s human capital, particularly in the department that oversees the implementation and architecture of software design, the CEO pointed out. "In the last year alone, we have increased the workforce by 25 percent in this department as well as other areas such as research and development", he added.

Asked if the company has tailored a business strategy specific to the region, Beauchamp noted that the IT scene is no longer what it was a few years ago where there might be a region with a faster uptake of tech compared to another part of the world. These days, strategies typically have a more global overview, he said.

Beauchamp also revealed that the increased competition in the management software scene, particularly with rival software vendor CA Technologies going on an acquisition spree to beef up its cloud offerings, and the increasing importance of such tools to improve businesses have served to invigorate him.

"I have never been more excited than now [since becoming CEO about 10 years ago]," he said. "Management software has always been interesting but never business changing. Today, it is the killer app that enables cloud computing and self-service IT projects, which is transforming how companies operate."

Additionally, he said the management software segment will likely be dominated by one company just as Microsoft did in the desktop space in the future. BMC, with its suite of services, is the furthest along to achieve pole position, according to Beauchamp.