Part 2:  Making the Case for Virtualization

Joseph Held, Senior VP of IT and CIO, Standard & Poors, told attendees tonight that his corporate transformation --which has taken about four years so far--has included business partners and IT from the start.

To make the case to business leaders, Held says he explained that using SaaS, SOA hubs, virtualization and internal cloud computing services would allow the company to focus on its core strengths and competencies. At this point in the implementation, cost savings, efficiencies and other advantages of the plug-and-play model are seen across the global enterprise. Moving to a service model has also freed IT from spending too much time on maintenance and lets IT be more innovative, he says.