CA`s new CEO says open source standards vital to unlocking open innovation

Computer Associates International, Inc president and chief executive officer John Swainson today challenged software vendors to leverage open standards and open source as their default platform to minimise IT complexity, maximise efficiency and enable open innovation.

During his keynote, entitled "Open Source Meets the Enterprise", at LinuxWorld Conference and Expo at the Hynes Convention Centre in Boston, Massachusetts, Swainson discussed the shared challenge of the IT industry and called for the industry to put aside, "the politics and posturing that too often impede progress and waste time. We cannot afford to do that," said Swainson.

"If we can achieve this goal of open standards, our customers will be able to cut through complexity and leverage their IT infrastructures for maximum benefit at a vastly reduced cost. And it will spur innovation at a rate we have never seen before," Swainson predicted.

An audiocast of Swainson`s keynote is available at http://ca.com/media/js_keynote_lw05.ram for RealMedia and http://ca.com/media/js_keynote_lw05.asx for Windows Media.

Swainson said the real key to spurring the growth of innovation that reduces the complexity of IT for customers is the establishment of true open standards, because open standards, "allow each of us to innovate separately and still glue our innovations together".

The power driving open standards is that the standards are not owned by any company. "Instead, they are specifications for formats, interfaces, graphics, networking and so on, established by industry-wide bodies, to assure hardware and software compatibility. These standards support interoperability, portability and scalability and are equally available to the general public at no cost or with a moderate licence fee," Swainson said.

"We need to work together as a community to promote true open standards...and create an industry-standard platform that will enable interfaces - like Web services; operating systems and platforms - like Linux, Java and MS DOS; and the data centre - like Oracle, Sybase, MySQL and Ingres."

Ultimately, adoption of open source for the enterprise will depend on four elements, Swainson said:

1. The ability of open source to deliver real business value;
2. Reliable vendors who can mitigate risk. Vendors are stepping up to provide indemnification (along with support contracts) for open source technologies;
3. The ability of vendors to provide enterprise call support 24 x 7;
4. Vendors who can ensure the co-existence of open source with the existing IT environment.

Swainson said Linux, open source and the open innovation model are a natural fit for CA, because the company has always prided itself on being platform-neutral.

"We have always ensured our management software works with whatever systems our customers have and whatever solutions and functions they may choose to add as their businesses evolve and grow, including Linux," said Swainson.