Tony Scott, chief information officer, Microsoft Corp was in India recently. Pratima Harigunani from CyberMedia News caught up with Scott for a talk on consolidation of data centers and applications, virtualisation, MS's IT budget and strategic outlines, open standards, Green IT, as well as his headaches, and more…
Tony Scott, chief information officer, Microsoft Corp.How has it been as Microsoft's CIO so far?
It has been six months now. It is one of the most interesting CIO roles probably in the world. More so, as it simultaneously covers three domains: the classic CIO role, which entails responsibility for the IT operations of the company. Then there is the task of working closely with the product development side and contribute as users of MS technologies in beta and development stage, thereby improving product quality. Add to that the chance to work our broad customer base and large enterprises and act in some ways as advocates of revolutionary technologies. This is indeed a unique combination of many roles as a CIO.
What's the status of initiatives taken up by your predecessors like Stuart Scott with respect to consolidation of data centers, trimming of applications, virtualisation drive and use of new collaboration software?
We have made good progress in all of that. The data center consolidation continues. Virtualisation is turning out to be a more interesting story. With less than 10 per cent a year back in terms of servers, it is now about 25 per cent this year with 50 per cent level expected next year. That is remarkable progress. We have achieved all goals on application reduction. As regards collaboration software, SharePoint is the primary platform and it has been a great success story, not just at Microsoft but all across.
Is a greater part of your IT budget being injected increasingly in NPD (New Product Development)?
Historically, the budget was around operation and maintenance and yes, there is a shift towards NPD and we are making new progress every year.
How has it been for you since you came from CIO roles at organizations like Bristol-Myers Squibb, General Motors, PwC and Disney to Microsoft?
While I was at Bristol Myers Squibb or PwC, Y2K was a big issue. That won't be there until for quite some decades. Then the dotcom era came. At Disney, the ERP movement was a big thing. So each role at its time, had a different challenge. Today's problems are different from the ones years ago. Today, demand, capacity, and efficiency to deliver are all going up and there are many new things that are coming up. But then there are some constants also, like finding talent, or connecting with our business partners well. So some things stay constant, some change, and some change dramatically.
While you were at GM, you set up Liberty Alliance for Identity Management, which was an open standards group. Now at Microsoft, what's your view on the open landscape?
That was created amidst some different factors operating that time. Today, the field of Identity Management has evolved a lot. We have set standards in this space. MS' commitment as shared prominently some time back, is broad and significant. Standards are important for commerce and interactivity.
How do you manage the bridging task between MS internal IT and external one?
There are a number of ways in which we are continuously achieving that. Large enterprise forums, CIO summits and EBCs (Executive Briefing Centres) are some examples, which help connect various entities.
How similar or dissimilar are the headaches you and other CIOs today have?
Some issues remain the same everywhere. There are budget issues every year, there are increasing business demands and the question of squeezing efficiency and productivity well with the given money. Every CIO in that sense is faced with the same concerns be it business demand for IT services, digitization, demand for services from our customers, which keeps going up. The capacities are going up but so are the costs. There are two areas in particular today that concern us. One is network bandwidth, as richer applications and more media content calls for resources. Then there is the question of storage in view of economics of price reductions.
Green IT is almost turning from a buzzword to a cliché? Your practical take on that?
It is an important imperative for Microsoft. This is where virtualization is a great contributor. Added to that is significant action on data center capability, system management tools, server operating system with Green IT as a focus. In our data centers, we are using all available technologies as we can find, be it heating or cooling ones or the sources of energy in the very first place. So we have to find ways to offset that with efficiencies wherever possible.
What is your view on some of the contemporary CIO attention areas like redundancy, complexity, consolidation and standardization?
Yes, it is an important part of what a CIO does these days. As a leader in the organization, it's my job to set strategy and objectives in each of these areas. These are really derivatives of other factors. What matters is making business process more effective, making systems easier for customers and partners and of course, handling costs well at the end of the day.
What are you betting on next?
Our next big bets are on Microsoft CRM solution broadly across the company. We are developing a platform for Microsoft as well as our customer base. So there is a big initiative around that as well as in data warehousing and Business Intelligence.
Any particular observations on India?
I am very happy to with MS IT team here, which is a critical mass of people and talent that are helping in developing some critical systems. The India team is critical to some of the most important products and projects within MS. This team is a support team for many important elements of our technology landscape as well.
Has it been as challenging a task as most would guess for being the CIO of an organization that presents together scale, spotlight and size all in one?
I often explain that in a lighter vein. I have come from a Mickey Mouse company (Scott was earlier the CIO of Disney) to a Mouse one. Microsoft clearly attracts some of the world's smartest people and it is fun to work in that environment. There are lots of changes happening and we will reinvent Microsoft and set the bar for the coming 10 to 15 years in the next few years only.
Milestones ahead?
The biggest job today is keeping up with what's happening. There are a lot of moving parts because of an organization as dynamic as this. MS should continue being recognized as world-class and a trendsetter among its peers and continue to enhance its image.
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