Systems/Enterprise:
CA UNVEILS NEW AND ENHANCED
UNICENTER MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS
Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA) announced the local launch of
Unicenter's new vision -- "Managing On-demand Computing" in Hong Kong with
support of the new and enhanced Unicenter management solutions designed to
manage complex and heterogeneous infrastructure.
CA's strategy for managing on-demand computing is built on four key
principles:
- Empowering customers to deliver IT as a service driven directly by
business
requirements;
- Providing the self-management/self-healing capabilities necessary to
ensure
that the IT infrastructure can function as a highly reliable utility;
- Creating a service-oriented architecture that radically simplifies
operations for IT staff; and
- Offering customers a flexible licensing model (CA FlexSelect
Licensing)
At the Networld+Interop Conference in Las Vegas, CA Chairman and CEO Sanjay
Kumar said, "We believe that the benefits of on-demand computing can be
achieved largely through IT management -- not extensive overhauls of IT
structures." 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.
"To realize the full potential of on-demand computing, we must move beyond
proprietary systems that lock customers into the network of a single vendor,"
Kumar said. "CA's vision of management of on-demand computing ensures that
business can rise above the IT fray and access computing as easily as flipping
a switch. The question is how to make on-demand computing a reality. At
Computer Associates, we believe the key is management."
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
organizations 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 maximize the value they receive
from their existing infrastructure by managing it better.
The new and enhanced Unicenter Management Solutions include:
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.
Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Unicenter NSM) 3.1 enables IT
organizations 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.
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.
"Unicenter provides an integrated, cost-saving solution that covers all
platforms. By reducing the effort required to integrate components of the
management system, Unicenter helps to enhance our ongoing systems availability
and is delivering value to the organization," said Steve Beason, Executive
Director of Information Technology, Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Combined, the benefits of CA's approach will drive the automation of
management processes, optimize 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 a comprehensive solution for managing a heterogeneous
and
constantly changing infrastructure like that of MTR Corporation. It performs
sophisticated event management and correlation across the entire network to
proactively alert IT personnel to potential trouble spots while optimizing
overall performance and ensuring availability of mission-critical systems,"
said Daniel Lai, Head of Information Technology, MTR Corporation Limited.
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