Discerning the Future

So much has been happening in the arean of optimization of Data Center Server resources, power, cooling and the worldwide hype cycle around all things green, that it can make your head spin!

In my case my head has been spinning of late around what MY personal plans should be.  As you all know, I'm hugely passionate around all things efficiency and server related; I've spent 25+ years now thinking about ways to optimize computers and their usage... The further I got into researching the implations around the game-changer of Virtualization, the more excited I got about all the possibilities.

Now we see the Green Grid kicking into high gear, trying to bring together multiple hardware and software companies around this entire macro-issue.  I believe we really are on the cusp of an all new era in capacity management and resource optimization. And I believe I can be a key contributor to the larger solution space.

I believe this so strongly, that I am taking the boldest possible action I can conceive: I am leaving BMC on May 1st to go off and start my own endeavor in this area!  For that reason, it is highly likely that this will be my last blog entry here at BMC. And I wanted to proffer my thanks to all of you who have contacted me, shared your thoughts, insights and ideas, and generally guided me during this exciting time.

In my new endeavor, I am excited and thrilled that I will continue to work closely with the BMC company, partner, and customer ecosystems, as well as expand beyond it to try and offer comprehensive, simple, and high ROI solutions for this complex area.  As such, I will continue to be in direct, and indirect, contact with many of you going forwards. To me that is a very much undeserved, but gratefully accepted, benefit.

Special thanks go out to BMC; a stronger, more passionate group of IT software solution professionals I've certainly not worked with over the last 25 years... That, more than anything else, is why I've continued to stay at BMC!  But sometimes, no matter how wonderful the environment, no matter how open to implementing new ideas, no matter how strong the capabilities of your co-workers, the relationships built up with customers, etc... Sometimes it is the right time to venture off on your own, and "live or die" on the strengths of your individual vision, passion, skills and desires to indeed make the world a better place. So, that is what I'm doing!

After I get things more established - I'm literally going to be hitting the ground running in this space! - I plan to do all the usual things like setting up a website, blog, etc... But you wouldn't imagine (or maybe you would - LOL) how much time-sinking work it is to actually setup corporations with the lawyers, accountants, etc...  That is important stuff that has to happen quickly!  So, much as I personally enjoy this communications part; well, its going to have to wait a bit for the more mundane things to take precedence.

A more personal thanks to the senior management here at BMC is also in order. I have really appreciated the leadership of Bob Beauchamp over the time I've worked under his organizations all the way up to and through his leadership as our CEO. I'll never forget the time a competitor came up to me at a user-event right after Bob had spoken and said (paraphrasing): "Wow, you guys are lucky to have a CEO that really gets it like Bob does!"... This was no marketing spin-meister, or dilbertian "sales weasel" (apologies in advance to the non-weasel sales professionals out there!) mind you... This was a highly experienced, technically proficient development director for one of BMC's direct competitors in the Performance and Capacity market segment... Bob's leadership has truly set the stage for an entire new set of solutions in the Systems Management space: Business Service Management.  And BSM has now in its turn set the stage for acceptance of more holistic, business-value based solutions. Such as solving the data center power capacity issues.  Without Bob's vision, there would be no BSM, no BMC blogging... and no "a lot of other great things from BMC" as well!

Personal thanks to our CTO office and Senior strategists, who have been very encouraging: Tom Bishop, Kia Behnia and Herb Van Hook. Your wisdom and grace not only continue to benefit BMC, they've benefitted me personally - Thanks!

For those of you who want to get in touch with me, I suggest contacting those you know at BMC, they'll be happy to point you to me (at least until I become "visible" in the new entity!). Or, you can find me on LinkedIn (which I highly recommend as a sort of professionals version of MySpace for the network-building and network-maintaining IT professional!).

So...

Best regards, keep it cool, and, please,  be efficient!

Dave