technology is also just starting to catch up with the realities of virtualization, with the number of required storage volumes growing as IT packs more virtual machines onto fewer physical boxes, Turner says.

But virtualization will be essential at State Street as it considers building a private cloud network. While the details and implementation date have not been figured out, Meyer says her team is hoping to harness virtualization, Web services and other technologies to build a network that lets users request new services and get them quickly, without having to worry about buying a server or setting up storage.

"They can request a service and the service will be there. That's the idea," Meyer says. "The services that users require most often will be easily available to them through the [private] cloud."

State Street is looking at public cloud services but is leaning toward keeping critical data center operations internal. "We're evaluating the security implications [of public cloud services]," she says. "I am not sure the security is there for our business."

At IT Roadmap, Meyer will talk generally about delivering IT services better, faster and more affordably. Despite being in a recession, IT can improve its operations and prepare for the future, she says.