Over the years, Credit Suisse realized that while virtualization trimmed data center costs and increased the efficiency of its computing resources and business operations, it also caused some unintended "operational complexity." And that's where the VRM product came in. VRM provided an agnostic approach (meaning it could work with any of the virtualization products out there, such as those from Microsoft or VMware) to managing virtualized environments: this created "a repeatable process for the deployment, tracking and ongoing management of virtual machines," according to Credit Suisse.

A self-service portal allows business users control and flexibility. "It allows end users to say, 'I want these application components, I need them for five days and put them on the best place they should run," Yatko says. "It manages the whole lifecycle, and they just paid for what they needed and what they used."

At the same time, adds Krueger, VRM is ensuring that "you're meeting the organizational governance, compliance and tracking of these assets through their entire life."

Virtualization is on nearly every IT shop's radar screen, but increased pressure on TCO and ROI with virtualization implementations have become common, says Stephen Elliot, director of enterprise system management at IDC. "TCO is becoming a big issue with large production environments," he writes in an e-mail. "Management solutions can lower TCO and improve ROI when deployed with the right staff, process and deployment."

As to DynamicOps chances in the virtualization tools market, Elliot, who has not had an official briefing on its product set, says "they have an opportunity, and if their claims are true, they might actually be ahead of many other vendors." Partnering with the virtualization vendors such as Microsoft would help, he says.

DynamicOps has "as good a chance as anyone else," Elliot says, "but they have to get aggressive with marketing—no one knows them and they are not on any short lists."

Why Did Credit Suisse Do It?

The strategy of non-vendor companies that build software or services in-house and then sell try to them commercially is unusual but not unheard of. "I have heard of a few times that this has happened," Elliot notes, "but more often the team leaves and gets funding versus getting funding from a related 'parent company' fund."

Besides being the top online retailer, Amazon.com has become a technology services provider, "finding ways to monetize its vast IT infrastructure," notes a 2007 CIO profile.

This experience is entirely new for Credit Suisse. "This is a first of a kind, to come from within IT," says Yatko.