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One of the most notable efforts to plan ahead of the curve, no matter which way it veers politically or economically, is underway at IT management software giant, CA. The company is taking a comprehensive and multi-level approach to resolving at least some of the day’s issues for its customer base.
On the information governance front, CA has prepared for significant reform in the legislative and executive branches of government advocated by both major presidential candidates. Regardless of the election outcome, it is likely that agencies will need to prepare for requirements to manage, discover and retain electronic and physical records, emails and other information assets.
In response to that strong possibility, CA Records Manager, reportedly the first to receive U.S. DoD 5015.2 v3 certification, is also the first to receive paired certifications under that standard. CA Records Manager is now certified with Microsoft SharePoint as well as a number of other content management systems. The U.S. DoD 5015.2 v3 standard is used worldwide as the de facto standard for comprehensive records management by both private and public organizations.
“As a government transition nears, agencies are beginning to ask themselves if they have sufficient systems to preserve and discover information that may be required for the expected inquiries and reform initiatives,” said Galina Datskovsky, SVP and general manager of Information Governance at CA in a prepared statement.
On the security and compliance front, CA has beefed up its product line by acquiring IDFocus, LLC this month. The newly purchased identity management technology firm helps customers meet compliance demands by proactively preventing segregation of duties (SoD) violations. As CA Identity Manager provisions users, it runs a check on the SoD policies set up in the IDFocus software. If a policy violation is identified, the solution is designed to prevent the provisioning event from taking place, proactively managing compliance needs and preventing violations before they happen. It also helps improve security and business efficiency by automating identity management processes.
“Identity management is essential to comprehensive IT security, and the integration of CA Identity Manager and ACE technology enables CA to deliver a robust and powerful identity management solution,” Dave Hansen, corporate senior vice president and general manager, CA Security Management told members of the press.
On the data center automation front, the company recently released CA Data Center Automation Manager, a solution for comprehensively managing both physical and virtualized data center resources and systems, plus enhancements to nine additional Enterprise IT Management (EITM) and Governance solutions.
According to Tim Grieser, vice president, System Management Software Research at IDC, management software such as CA’s EITM and Governance solutions “address key requirements including infrastructure management, service management, and automation to help IT align with the business and hold down operational costs while also supporting new growth opportunities.”
First adopters appear supportive. “CA Data Center Automation Manager dramatically reduces the amount of time it takes to build, configure and knock down test environments. The time savings will enable us to do a much more thorough job of testing,” said David Brattain, SVP of Systems, EITM and Production Support for Elavon. “In production, the solution’s ability to dynamically bring up machines based upon performance and other criteria will be the Holy Grail of virtualization. That’s a quantum leap from where we are today.”
No doubt many vendors are scampering about to find answers to questions yet to be fully defined. It will be interesting to see what trends continue to emerge and which vendors correctly make the call in these uncertain times.