BMC Software Hires Former Cisco Exec As New CTO

BMC Software, an IT management software vendor, hired a top technology visionary and cloud authority in Phil Harris as the company's new CTO.

Harris formerly was CTO of Cisco Systems' Cloud Systems Management Technology group, where he was responsible for leading technology strategy, business strategy and an early stage rapid development engineering team.

"This was too good of an opportunity to pass up," said Harris in an interview with CRN on his new role at Houston-based BMC. "A few times in your life you get the opportunity in a career to do something that can really make a difference and change something in the right direction fundamentally. … I got the opportunity to do that."

[Related: BMC Introduces Latest Capacity Managment Product With New Branding, And New Vision]

Harris as been called upon by government and industry groups around the world to provide insight and advice about technology development and transition programs -- including how best to develop and deploy cloud solutions in emerging markets.

Harris said BMC has a rich portfolio across some of the more traditional technologies as well as newer ones, which he hopes to capitalize on.

"We've been going through this service availability phase where customers, users and consumers of IT services can get access more easily to IT services, but still with a fairly static, imperative way," said Harris. "The next wave is really how we can migrate all of this technology into a cohesive ability to assemble services based on the context of the consumer, based on the context of the problems trying to be solved. I think that's the direction we want to chart for the industry and that's the ability we have with the assets at BMC."

Bob Beauchamp, BMC chairman and CEO, said in a statement that Harris can bring transformation not only to BMC, but across the entire IT industry.

"Phil's deep technology and industry experience, and strategic perspective, will open new possibilities for BMC as we reinvent the IT experience for customers around the globe," said Beauchamp. "We're privileged to have him join our team."

Harris is the seventh new senior executive to join BMC in the past year. Previous executive hires included Paul Appleby, executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing (who was previously with SAP); Robin Purohit, president of service support (formerly with HP); and David Gai, president of customer success (previously with JDA Software).

"Certainly bringing in new talent and bringing in new perspective means that we now have to have the cohesive narrative between what has made BMC such a successful company in the past and how it will continue to be a successful company in the future," said Harris, who joined BMC Jan. 5. "So it's going to be about creating that cohesive narrative that brings along and keeps the value proposition consistent. But that's the challenge I was brought on for and that’s the challenge that made it interesting for me to come aboard."

BMC has been privately held since late 2013, when it was bought out by a consortium led by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital in a deal worth nearly $7 billion.

’BMC is on a mission to not only transform itself, but also to fundamentally re-envision how the world thinks about and uses IT,’ Harris said. ’BMC has made great progress so far and I look forward to joining them on what promises to be a remarkable journey.’

Harris will replace Kia Behnia, who will not return from a sabbatical. BMC is expected to make the official announcement of Harris' appointment on Jan. 12.

PUBLISHED JAN. 8, 2015