News at CA

CA Technologies' Margin Hot Streak Continues

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:00:00 Z

Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That's why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I'm looking for the absolute numbers, so I can compare them to current and potential competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong CA Technologies' competitive position could be.

Here's the current margin snapshot for CA Technologies over the trailing 12 months: Gross margin is 86.9%, while operating margin is 30.5% and net margin is 19.5%.

CA Fourth-Quarter Profit Increases 12% on Rising Services Demand

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Net income advanced to $211 million, or 45 cents a share, from $188 million, or 37 cents, a year earlier, the Islandia, New York-based company said today in a statement. Excluding some items, profit was 56 cents a share, compared with the 52-cent average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Sales advanced about 10 percent in the enterprise solutions business and about 1 percent in the mainframe solutions unit. CA raised its dividend and buyback plan in January after being urged by investor Taconic Capital Advisors LP to boost shareholder returns.

CA “will continue to follow a strategy that thoughtfully balances investments in the business to fuel growth with the return of cash to our shareholders,” Chief Executive Officer Bill McCracken said in today’s statement.

Cisco, CA Partner on Proficiencies for Cloud Partner Program

Fri, 04 May 2012 00:00:00 +0100

The Cisco program validates Cloud Builder competencies in infrastructure, cloud management and professional services, enabling partners to design and implement private and public clouds built on Cisco technology, according to the company.

CA’s Automation Suite for Clouds is an enterprise cloud automation solution designed to help customers more quickly deliver cloud services and is now a qualified certification for which partners can exhibit competency and earn the Cisco Cloud Builder designation.

How To Get Customers Thinking About Hybrid Cloud Services

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

For many companies planning to adopt or expand cloud services, deriving value and cost savings from their investment is the bottom line, and the decision is understandably challenging. Not only can there be uncertainty in relinquishing control of critical business services, but placing all of a firm's loyalty in one service provider can introduce new risk – which can potentially bring big losses if things go awry.

A hybrid cloud approach allows your customer to hedge its bets, and brings opportunities for resellers to gain new clients. It allows simultaneous but discrete adoption of both public and private cloud systems and reduces the customer’s risk of adoption. Resellers can propose a hybrid cloud system as a proving ground for new customers, demonstrating the strength of their offering through low-risk services and applications on their way to evolving towards offering more business-critical services.

CA Technologies scouts for acquisitions in India

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

We are constantly scouting for potential targets across the world, and we probably have between 200 and 300 companies on our merger and acquisitions' radar at any given point of time as there is so much of innovation happening in the industry. Obviously, India is a good technology location and hence is a good target for us,” he told mediapersons here on Tuesday.

In the last two-and-a-half years, the over $4.5-billion company had invested around $2 billion in acquisitions, including Oblicore, 3Tera, nimsoft, NetQoS and 4Base. It also bought Arcot Systems for $200 million, which has a 115-strong research and development (R&D) centre in Bangalore, during this period.

McCracken said that CA was expected to invest anywhere between $300 million and $500 million during this year for acquisitions, primarily driven by cloud technologies, mobile device management, application lifecycle management and everything wrapped around it, service assurance and infrastructure management.

Tech Mahindra, Satyam in global pact with CA Tech

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

The Global Framework Agreement (GFA) is aimed at building a business model where shared and managed services can be provided to new and existing customers through a joint and strategic approach, a joint statement today said.

The three companies are already providing turnkey cloud computing services based on CA Technologies tools.

Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam have set up Mahindra CA Research centre at Pune, which will enable co-innovation and delivery of joint offerings, it added.

CA ARCserve Hits Amazon Marketplace

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

CA Technologies is now making available its CA ARCserve Backup and CA ARCserve D2D solutions purchasable on the AWS marketplace. In theory, this makes adding backup solutions as easy as one click.

Amazon Web Services exists as a one-stop cloud app store, giving customers streamlined access to a variety of SaaS solutions from a plethora of vendors for whatever IT problem ails them. Naturally, CA Technologies wants its offerings on Amazon’s shelf. Since the demand for backup and cloud protection is growing as fast as cloud itself, positioning ARCserve as an easily purchasable AWS item is a perfect way to attract more customers and simplify life for IT admins and APN members. What’s more, having backup as a quickly accessible SaaS solution makes it easier for VARs and MSPs to append backup solutions as a check-box-style feature.

CA Technologies will allow ARCserve to be purchased a la carte with “multiple data protection functionalities,” packaged up into a single comprehensive license that ensures data that needs protection will be protected. But for those with different needs, traditional licensing will also be made available.

Nimsoft Monitor Certified for VCE Vblock

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

This enables users to leverage Nimsoft IT Management-as-a-Service capabilities to gain full visibility into their Vblock infrastructure — along with the rest of their cloud and non-cloud environments.

VCE was formed by Cisco and EMC with investments from VMware and Intel with the goal of developing converged infrastructure and cloud computing models. The Vblock platform presents a prepackaged, integrated IT offering.

CA Launches New Partner Program As Cloud Technology Sales Grow

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

The formal launch of the CA Global Partner Program fulfills a promise company executives made at CA World in November to focus more efforts on the channel -- a move necessitated by CA's growing sales of cloud computing technologies to mid-market customers.

"This is part of our ongoing transformation at CA for how we go to market with partners," said David Bradley, senior vice president of global channel sales, in an interview. Reliance on the channel has "gone from a strategy to a fundamental belief within the company."

New CA Technologies Partner Program for VARs, MSPs & CSPs

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

The new CA Technologies partner program emerges as CA also attempts to connect the dots between established brands (ARCserve, for instance) and acquired technologies (such as Nimsoft and AppLogic). Here’s the update.

According to a prepared statement from CA,the partner program includes:
• A platform-agnostic, end-to-end solutions portfolio: The focused here is on planning, management and IT security solution.
• Business Enablement for Growth: A global partner lifecycle program providing consistency in the partner and customer experience.
• Cloud Enablement: The development of solutions based on each partner’s unique value proposition, plus marketing, sales, and technical enablement tools to help build sales pipelines.

If IBM Beats, This Stock a Buy: Pro Trader

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

“If IBM does well I’d own Computer Associates,” he says. “Computer Associates is like a mini-IBM. It pays a 4% dividend but it has better quality operating margins and higher profitability.”

Trader Josh Brown adds that if IBM beats the trade is long IBM. “There’s very little not to like about IBM,” he says.

And Brown also says, if you’re looking at Intel, which also reports after the bell, why not look at Qualcomm. “Intel may be trying to get bigger in wireless but Qualcomm is already there. And they’re in tablets. I think the stock has more upside."

Trader Pete Najarian thinks the trade is long Intel. “I’ve been in Intel around $20 and I continue to believe in the story. I like the valuation, dividend yield, and I don’t think the PC industry is completely dead. I think it gets to $35.”

Web Host PEER 1 Deploys Nimsoft Unified Manager for Monitoring

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

This news comes less than a week after PEER 1 announced that it has enhanced its SMART Partner Program, changing it from a four-tier revenue commitment model to a two-tier performance-based model.

According to the press release, Nimsoft Unified Manager is a multi-tenant management-as-a-service solution that combines infrastructure monitoring and service management capabilities.

PEER 1 says that the data Nimsoft provides to customers will enable it to shorten its response time to customer issues. This may be a concern of other web hosting providers, and could be a reason to offer monitoring solutions to customers. PEER 1 says with Nimsoft it was able to reduce the cost and complexity associated with maintaining multiple monitoring systems.

Management Insights: Cloud for Smarties

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

There’s a real force in play here that’s driving all enterprises with a mainframe toward hybrid cloud. Many of the business-critical services being targeted by enterprise CIOs will likely be cross-platform services and their cloud must therefore be heterogeneous and flexible. Combining the irreplaceable efficiencies and other attributes of the mainframe with the low cost and other attributes of public cloud is an obvious decision for CIOs and other IT leaders, and I believe all these enterprises will eventually adopt a hybrid cloud strategy. If I’m right and the tremendous control/cut costs pressure on CIOs continues, this means the question of “how soon?” could (and perhaps should) be this year or next for most of you.

With new technologies such as the zEnterprise and other cross-enterprise and cloud-enabling solutions, organizations and their IT leaders can today begin to address another key question facing them: “How do I get started?”

CAT-220 exam Inc. made a splash at the show, announcing a new System z educational push — its $1 million Mainframe Academy initiative — a vendor-agnostic boot-camp of sorts. The eight-week-long academy is a mix of in-class, hands-on, virtual, and independent study tracks aimed at would-be mainframers. CA’s reasoning is that zBX — which promises to permit system-wide management across mainframe and non-mainframe platforms alike — plays to its passfine traditional strengths. Along with BMC, HP, and IBM itself, CA Technologies is a leader in cross-platform management tooling.

How To Stand Out in the Cloud: Part 2

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Delivering cloud offerings that address the needs of companies in a specific industry can be a winning strategy for many service providers. The compliance approaches cited above may inherently have a vertical focus, such as HIPAA and the health care industry, but there are a range of other options for addressing the needs of specific industries.

One approach could be delivering industry-specific applications and capabilities to customers. As mentioned earlier, infrastructure is increasingly becoming commoditized. Most organizations will need to gain differentiation in a vertical through applications, industry-specific integrations, and so on. In the health care industry, this could include electronic medical record solutions, patient management applications, or healthcare billing solutions. These are very important areas for the healthcare market, but many organizations may not want to source them internally. If a service provider can deliver these capabilities in a turnkey cloud solution, they can have a unique selling proposition, and ultimately enjoy rich margins.

Fujitsu Adds Nimsoft to Its Global Cloud Platform

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

The Fujitsu ITMaaS offering is initially available in Australia and New Zealand and is to be rolled out across other global regions in the coming months.

Fujitsu has architected Nimsoft Monitor and Nimsoft Service Desk into its portfolio to be delivered from the Fujitsu Global Cloud Platform (FGCP). This complements its rapidly growing catalogue of SaaS applications and Fujitsu’s expertise in IT service management. Fujitsu customers will be able to access functionally rich, easy-to-implement ITMaaS capabilities that can be universally applied to their private, public and hybrid cloud environments—as well as to their conventional IT infrastructure.

The addition of the Nimsoft solutions also makes FGCP an even more compelling option for Fujitsu ISV customers, who are using it as a strategic delivery platform for their own SaaS offering.

How To Stand Out in the Cloud: Build Security and Compliance

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Compared with traditional software and infrastructure investment, cloud investments are increasing quickly. Whether you’re looking at models such as SaaS, IaaS or PaaS, growth rates are projected to be much higher than those of traditional IT products and services. Two years ago, for example, Nimsoft surveyed some 800 service providers, and no one expressed interest in SaaS. Recently, a similar poll revealed that more than a third are consuming and deploying "as-a-service" models.

Many leading service providers and VARs are already offering a variety of cloud solutions, and most are planning to expand their offerings. For smaller MSPs and traditional resellers who have yet to make the leap, many opportunities exist—but there are also a lot of risks. Channel decision makers must carefully consider alternative cloud models, target markets and services.

One risk is betting on the wrong cloud model. For example, if you’re thinking about building and delivering Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), you might want to think again. Established players have turned IaaS into a commodity, to the point where Amazon Web Services is offering EC2 for free. Clearly, that makes it hard to compete and maintain healthy margins.

La Perla backup safeguards supply chain

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

La Perla, an international manufacturer of luxury lingerie headquartered in Italy, recently revealed it is using CA ARCserve Backup to protect up to three terabytes of critical data across the majority of its 50 servers located around the world.

The storage backup software gives La Perla continuous access to critical data. This safeguards the manufacturing process, while preventing disruption to the supply chain. These are core to centralised services essential for the day-to-day running of the business – from email to critical data and business intelligence based on sales figures at points of sale and intranet portals used by retailers and major suppliers.

Pragmatic cloud: Why some clouds fail to deliver

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Drawing on his personal experience as a sysadmin, Keith addresses some of the key changes required in order to improve service levels, business capabilities, and customer satisfaction. Though if that is the complete picture why do we hear stories of organizations that have done those things – that have brought in automation, virtualization, and cloud technologies – and remain unable to improve service to their customers; or at least not improve it enough. Well, as legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey might say, stay tuned for… “the rest of the story.”

Searching for Goldilocks

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

At the CA World conference in Las Vegas last November, the software giant created a new marketing vehicle to get a better read on what the show's 5,000 attendees were thinking about the event and the CA brand.

Using Radian6 technology, which specializes in social media monitoring, CA set up a Social Listening Operation Center on the show floor.

Attendees were encouraged to make comments via a Twitter hashtag (#CAWorld) that was promoted during the event's keynote speech and in printed materials, said Michelle Accardi, VP-Internet marketing. Twitter comments ran on a large screen in the middle of the show floor and were streamed on the CA.com and CA World websites. The comments and questions from the crowd were then aggregated and distributed to the appropriate departments at CA.

3 Key Factors in Next-Gen Network Management

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

These complex environments make it hard for IT to monitor performance, track all end-user transactions and to pinpoint root cause when problems occur or bandwidth slows. Simply put, network management tools must evolve to keep up the pace and provide customers with a better way to manage this complexity.

Furthermore, in this advanced environment, network management tools must not only address the network and applications supported, they also need to adapt to changes in administration. The â€œnew normalâ€ for IT is to accelerate delivery of new and enhanced services that support business objectives, at current budget levels, without increasing risk.

With these challenges in mind, the following three key factors are certain to play significant roles in next-generation network management capabilities and solutions in the years to come.

CA Erwin Data Modeler Community Mail-in Rebate

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

For a limited time, current registered CA ERwin Data Modeler Community Edition users can qualify for a mail-in/fax-in rebate of $700 to $1300, PLUS receive a copy of the informative book Data Modeling Made Simplean $80 valueabsolutely FREE!

This exciting offer is valid in North America only for current, registered CA ERwin Data Modeler Community Edition users only, who place eligible CA ERwin Data Modeler Standard Edition or Workgroup Edition orders between Thursday, March 15, 2012 and Saturday, June 30, 2012. Please note this offer cannot be combined with any other CA ERwin end user savings or promotional offer. However, these sales CAN be used with CA Deal Registration, if the deal is qualified and the Reseller Partner is eligible to participate in CA Deal registration.

Claims for the Rebate and Free Book must be filed within 30 days of a qualified purchase. Rebate Claim Forms and Official Rebate Rules with complete terms and conditions can be found at: erwin.com/erwin-unlimited.

Ingram Micro Cloud Offers CA ARCserve, Disaster Recovery Options

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Ingram Micro Cloud is a cloud services aggregator platform that allows VARs and MSPs to source, provision and resell various cloud applications to end-customers. Ingram’s channel partners can also control pricing and end-customer billing. The Ingram Micro Cloud offers multiple storage and data protection services, plus a range of SaaS applications.

Ingram Micro VP Renee Bergeron has publicly vowed to make sure the Ingram Micro Cloud is the top cloud services aggregator platform, even as rival distributors like Synnex and Tech Data move into the market.

Meanwhile, CA Technologies has been busy overhauling its existing software portfolio to include service provider licensing. The CA ARCserve MSP Licensing Program 2.0 address that need. A separate solution, called CA ARCserve D2D On Demand, is a SaaS offering that leverages Windows Azure. CA claims the platform offers secure and affordable end-to-end cloud- based data protection and disaster recovery.

Generally speaking, I think CA is making progress promoting its longstanding applications (ARCserve) and acquired software platforms (AppLogic, Nimsoft) to the cloud services and managed services marketplace. However, CA Technologies apparently is reorganizing some of its teams to more effectively target mid-market customers, our sister site MSPmentor reported yesterday.

N-able's N-central 8.2 Adds Remote Control, Centralized Backup

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

In addition, N-central 8.2 now includes a centralized backup and recovery solution powered by CA Technologies' CA ARCserve D2D r16.

"We've been selling the CA product for the last year. We've been working with partners to evolve the CA application to be the best backup and recovery solution on the market. Now we've completely integrated it into N-central as with our managed End Point Security solution," Garbutt said. "Because it's fully integrated it comes with all the features, functionality for all things IT managed through your NOC."

The release of 8.2 is the start of N-able's strategy delivering functionality in three main categories for MSPs in 2012, Garbutt said. The first is to enhance the company's centralized RMM platform. Second, N-able plans to continue its freemium strategy and is to help partners establish standards for services and IT delivery, Garbutt said.

Conversion value in cloud

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Focus on cloud storage

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Technology and value of CA ArcotID

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

CRN's 30th Anniversary: 30 In Their 30s

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Recognizes two CA Technologies leaders:

Adam Famularo
GM, Enterprise, Cloud Solutions
CA Technologies
Islandia, N.Y.

Famularo put CA on the enterprise cloud map. Now he's helping the U.S. get its cloud house in order as a commissioner for the TechAmerica Foundation CLOUD2 Commission, which is chartered with developing best practices for cloud deployment for the Obama administration.

Erin Malone
Sr. Director, Channel Sales
CA Technologies
Islandia, N.Y.

Malone built up her channel resume at Websense where she focused on channel sales, marketing and enablement for more than 10 years. Last year Malone moved over to CA as senior director of channel sales.

CA-Technologies-participe-au-Tech-Summit-D2B