CA's R&D Chief: Mainframes Are the Mission
“We got stronger,” said Sam Greenblatt, CA&s senior vice president and senior technical advisor. “We kept the entire research and development team in place when there was trouble at the top. There wasn&t one R and D (specialist) dismissed.”
In an interview at the recent Share IBM users group, Greenblatt outline the broad strategies of CA&s R and D as the company continues to recover from several months of scandal.
Much of CA&s new development centers around a classic approach to mainframe computing, with the emphasis on identifying and then creating features for IBM mainframes, particularly the new zSeries, Greenblatt said.
“I get angry anytime I hear the mainframe is dying,” said Greenblatt. “We think the mainframe is growing. They are easier and easier to install. Their MIPS are increasing.”
The mainframe computing world dominated by IBM machines offer top security features that are in demand by IT managers and CA&s research and development teams are seeking to take advantage of these opportunities in enterprise computing.
Greenblatt described CA&s R and D strategy that essentially tracks the firm&s three-pronged approach to the future – acquisitions, organic growth, and partnerships.
Noting that the company has carried out 73 acquisitions over the years, Greenblatt said CA would now emphasize acquisitions that fill out the company&s product offerings while eschewing acquisitions what would be done simply to help CA&s financials. He pointed to CA&s acquisition last year of identity-management software developer Netegrity as an example of the type of addition that fills out a space in the firm&s offerings.
As for organic growth, Greenblatt said CA&s R and D effort is focused on developing products for IBM&s new z9 mainframe. “And, we see opportunities in Linux and IBM&s WebSphere, too.” As the former chief architect for CA&s Linux Technology Group, Greenblatt continues to work in the growing open source area. He is a member of the board of directors of the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL).
“Linux on the mainframe is small now,” he said. “But it&s going to be big. Computer Associates is the only company with full security and backup for Linux (for mainframes.)”
Greenblatt said CA also conducts research that is more basic, but he would not describe it in detail, because of the proprietary nature of the work. He identified the areas broadly as “wireless computing, form factor computing, and nanotechnology.”