CA Breaks Unicenter Into Pieces

In an effort to appeal to smaller businesses, Computer Associates this week will release a new version of its flagship Unicenter TNG that breaks the systems-and network-management framework into modules that are less expensive and easier to implement--a plan the vendor first unveiled three years ago.

"We changed the entire architecture to support large and medium-sized businesses that need customized solutions," says Tarkan Maner, VP for brand management and corporate marketing. "This is going to change the landscape of the enterprise-management market big-time."

Unicenter 3.0 will be introduced July 9 at CA World in Orlando, Fla., the company's annual user conference. It will consist of six main modules: Network Systems and Management, which includes service-level management, performance management, and network operations; Automated Operations, which offers job management, output management, and data transport; IT Resource Management, which covers asset management, software delivery, and remote control; Database Management, which includes database performance, administration, and backup; Infrastructure Management, which manages application-server management; and Application Management, which manages groupware, enterprise resource management, and supply-chain management apps.

"It doesn't sound new to me," says Steve Foote, president of analysis firm Enswers.com. Foote says CA first unveiled plans to split Unicenter into modules in 1998, but never tried to sell individual pieces of the suite.

"We've been telling them to break it up--get modular," says Patrick Dryden, an analyst with Illuminata. "In this business climate, IT managers have to do more with less. They're not looking for soup-to-nuts solutions."

CA also plans to unveil BrightStor, an integrated suite of storage-management applications and show a new storage area network-management application and a centralized enterprise storage-management tool. CA didn't disclose prices for any of the products.