Computer Associates International, Inc (CA) today unveiled new and enhanced Unicenter management solutions designed to ensure the success of corporate on-demand computing initiatives.
CA introduced the products at the Networld+Interop Conference following a keynote address by CA Chairman and CEO Sanjay Kumar, who said the benefits of on-demand computing can be achieved largely through IT management - not extensive overhauls of IT infrastructures.
The fundamental goals of on-demand computing are to dynamically align IT capacity with changing business priorities while increasing the efficiency with which IT resources are used. Until now, on-demand computing initiatives have been limited by inadequate management capabilities.
True on-demand computing - where IT capacity is dynamically delivered as a utility - can only be achieved when, in addition to applying functionality such as the dynamic allocation of resources and automatic software provisioning, the health and performance of IT infrastructure are also taken into account.
"Ultimately, it is the needs of the business - not the constraints of how IT organisations conventionally manage infrastructure - that should drive enterprise computing," said Wai Wong, CA`s senior vice-president and general manager of Unicenter solutions. "By transforming Unicenter technology to provide the industry`s first management platform for on-demand computing, CA is ensuring that our customers can achieve a new level of IT efficiency and alignment."
Managing on-demand computing is an important step in the evolution of Unicenter, which has long helped customers maximise the value they receive from their existing infrastructure by managing it better. The new Unicenter solutions leverage extensions to CA Common Services that provide shared Business Process Views, synchronisation between business processes and IT infrastructure, and self-management capabilities to deliver an efficient and responsive on-demand computing environment.
"Our goal is to significantly reduce our IT cost structure while improving operational effectiveness and delivering consistent, high quality service to all our clients," says Charlie Carroll, senior vice-president, AXA Group, one of the largest global financial services companies in the world. "CA`s Unicenter technology is helping us to realise this with solutions to manage a complex, heterogeneous infrastructure and an emerging on-demand computing environment."
The solutions announced today include:
Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Unicenter NSM) 3.1 enables IT organisations to view IT infrastructure based on the services it supports, and to keep those views current in a dynamically changing environment. This is critical for on-demand computing, since resources are continually re-allocated to services based on demand. Through data integration services, Unicenter NSM rapidly accesses and aggregates management information across Unicenter solutions and third-party management information sources.
Unicenter Management for webMethods 3.0, which manages the performance and availability of webMethods, works in concert with Unicenter NSM to dynamically associate applications and individual infrastructure components with the business processes they support in an on-demand computing environment.
A new Unicenter NSM Dynamic Reconfiguration Option works with Unicenter NSM to monitor business service levels, anticipate when more capacity is needed to improve performance, and triggers the immediate allocation of more capacity.
Unicenter Software Delivery 4.0 delivers built-in self-healing and provisioning capabilities for applications and operating systems that provide automated provisioning and reallocation of resources to accommodate changes in business demand. It also manages software interdependencies to ensure that on-demand infrastructure functions properly.
Unicenter Asset Management 4.0 provides intelligent, multi-dimensional software and hardware asset management capabilities that present an accurate representation of enterprise-wide resources.
Unicenter ServicePlus Service Desk 6.0 enables devices and applications to proactively and automatically interact with the help desk - thereby embedding self-management into the on-demand computing infrastructure. It keeps support personnel informed of issues on which they need to take immediate action.
"Our vision is to move from a technology-centric IT organisation to a service-centric model, in which CSX Technology is viewed as a service provider for the rest of the company," said Cynthia Luman, vice-president of operations for CSX Technology, which provides information technology applications that support CSX Corporation and its business units, one of the world`s largest suppliers of transportation and logistics services. "Unicenter, with its on-demand capabilities and the new product releases, is raising the bar even higher, and will help us realise this vision. "
CA is uniquely qualified to deliver on this vision because of its long history providing IT infrastructure management solutions that ensure alignment with business processes, and its track record in supporting the full range of heterogeneous resources found in today`s complex, multi-vendor enterprise environments.
Combined, the benefits of CA`s approach will drive the automation of management processes, optimise the usage of IT resources, simplify operations, and automatically route work to systems best able to handle the load based on service levels defined for the business processes.
"Unicenter provides many benefits that enhance every aspect of our business: effective deployment of operations staff, a more reliable and responsive environment, lower cost of operation and the ability to effortlessly adapt to change," said George Fiedorowicz, vice-president of technology operations at Concord EFS, Inc, a vertically integrated electronic transaction processor. "Our initial conservative ROI was achieved in just one year, and we`re excited to see where Unicenter will take us next with our on-demand computing projects."
Three of the six Unicenter solutions for managing on-demand computing are available now; the others are in beta test and will be available within 60 days. These modular solutions will be complemented by a variety of Unicenter, BrightStor and eTrust offerings to be announced in the near future.
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Computer Associates International, Inc (NYSE:CA), one of the world`s largest software companies, delivers software and services that enable organisations to manage their IT environments. Focus areas include network and systems management, storage and security management, portal and business intelligence, and application lifecycle management. Founded in 1976, CA is headquartered in Islandia, NY, and operates in more than 100 countries. For more information on CA, please visit http://ca.com.
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