CA buys e-mail archiving software

Computer Associates last week made public its acquisition of an e-mail archiving-software vendor whose technology CA says will help round out BrightStor, its suite to manage storage.

The company did not disclose how much it spent on iLumin Software Services, which was founded in 1996.

CA will sell iLumin's Assentor product line as is, with plans to eventually integrate it into its storage and broader management portfolio. CA says the acquisition brings cross-platform e-mail security, archiving and data protection to its BrightStor management suite.

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Computer Associates last week made public its acquisition of an e-mail archiving-software vendor whose technology CA says will help round out BrightStor, its suite to manage storage.

The company did not disclose how much it spent on iLumin Software Services, which was founded in 1996.

CA will sell iLumin's Assentor product line as is, with plans to eventually integrate it into its storage and broader management portfolio. CA says the acquisition brings cross-platform e-mail security, archiving and data protection to its BrightStor management suite.

Industry watchers say the technology will help CA address a growing need among its enterprise customers, which are being called upon to manage e-mail in line with compliance requirements.

"It will give CA the ability to manage e-mail as an information life-cycle management application, according to regulatory requirements," says Mike Karp, a senior analyst with Enterprise Management Associates.

"Eventually, it will make sense for CA to integrate the technology with its Unicenter management software," Karp says.

Despite its previous partnership with iLumin, CA is still playing a bit of catchup with competitors - such as IBM, EMC and Symantec - in the e-mail-archiving market, industry watchers say. HP also offers e-mail-archiving technologies via its Reference Information Storage System.

The acquisition news came a week after CA's chief met with the press to discuss the company's plans in year two of a four-year strategy aimed at reconfirming its position of management leadership. Storage is among four technology areas CEO John Swainson has designated for growth and development within CA, alongside management, security and optimizing business services.

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