CA users to eyeball Unicenter upgrade

Computer Associates this week is set to share management and security product plans with customers eager to hear which products the vendor will develop and which it may leave behind.

The company is expected to announce Unicenter 11, the first major revision of the network and systems management software in four years, at its CA World customer conference in Las Vegas. While CA would not disclose details, upgrades are expected to include the ability to manage virtualized servers, automate problem resolution and collect configuration data that could be used to populate the company's first configuration management database (CMDB).

And for security, CA is expected to announce upgraded eTrust identity and access management tools, which are expected to incorporate technology acquired with Netegrity last year.

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Computer Associates this week is set to share management and security product plans with customers eager to hear which products the vendor will develop and which it may leave behind.

The company is expected to announce Unicenter 11, the first major revision of the network and systems management software in four years, at its CA World customer conference in Las Vegas. While CA would not disclose details, upgrades are expected to include the ability to manage virtualized servers, automate problem resolution and collect configuration data that could be used to populate the company's first configuration management database (CMDB).

And for security, CA is expected to announce upgraded eTrust identity and access management tools, which are expected to incorporate technology acquired with Netegrity last year.

"It is clear that CA has not been in the news [for its products] in the past year and that people are still dubious about the Concord/Aprisma acquisition," says Jean-Pierre Garbani, a vice president with Forrester Research. "I see good things coming from CA, but the company still has to get back at the forefront. IBM Tivoli has captured a lot of mind share lately, and it is tough to beat that."

Amid accounting scandals, management changes and acquisitions, CA has been notably quiet on the product front for the past 18 months, as new company leaders re-jiggered internal operations.

At the show the company will be sharing its product developments and company strategy. CA expects about 5,000 attendees, half that of last year's show. Industry watchers say the company must start disclosing its plans to clients to remain competitive.

For instance, vendors such as BMC Software, HP and IBM have been touting CMDB products for the past year as a means to better access, correlate and make intelligent use of configuration data collected from applications and systems by disparate management products. The technology also can show network managers the servers that applications depend upon, which can potentially speed fixes during an IT failure.

"CMDB is the hot subject du jour, and it is high time for CA to announce their strategy. ... Many clients see application-to-infrastructure mapping as a fundamental technology that will ease the pain of systems management," Garbani says.

The expected upgrades reflect CA's awareness of a shift in IT buying practices from purchasing tools to implementing integrated product suites, industry watchers say. For instance, CA is incorporating its CMDB technology across relevant products - rather than selling it as a stand-alone application - which could help customers better collect, share and manage data from multiple CA and third-party sources, says Rich Ptak, principal analyst with Ptak, Noel & Associates.

"CA realizes it needs to frame its products and message to customers in terms of IT services," he says. "It's not about how many tools they have to solve disparate IT problems. Now vendors like CA need to make the case for how their technology will solve business problems."