CA Wants Focus Back on Products

As it digs out from the rubble of government investigations, accounting scandals and executive shake-ups, Computer Associates International Inc. is hoping to shift some attention back to its products when it announces a handful of upgrades in two weeks at its CA World conference.

Much of the news at CA World, which starts May 23 in Las Vegas, will be a continuation of CA’s recent strategy to integrate its products into packaged suites rather than roll out discrete products as it has done in the past. The plans also call for extending that strategy to creating product solutions with partners, something CA executives have said is a key goal for the company this year.

“By the end of this year, you will see integrated releases either in [general availability] or beta across the portfolio,” said Mark Barrenechea, senior vice president of product development at CA, in an interview with eWEEK last week. “You will see more integrated suites, just like we did in January with BrightStor. It’s fair to say over the next month or so you’ll see [similar] announcements on the security side.”

One of those upcoming announcements will be based on the integration of some of the company’s security products with its Unicenter management software. Barrenechea stressed that the company’s success hinges on extending its strength in management to other key areas, such as security and storage. The company already has created one security-centric suite, the eTrust Identity and Access Management Suite, and the Security Command Center product, which is capable of managing a wide range of devices.

The eTrust Threat Management line currently comprises eight products, including anti-virus, intrusion detection, forensics and vulnerability assessment. Many of these are prime candidates for integration with Unicenter. Barrenechea also said that CA will deliver more of its security capabilities as services over the Web.

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