CA is acquiring several patents, patent applications and other intellectual property in the deal with San Jose, Calif.-based Cassatt. In addition, Rob Gingell, Cassatt's CTO and executive vice president of product development; Steve Oberlin, co-founder and chief scientist; and other Cassatt developers, engineers and key employees will now work for CA.

Cassatt's approach is to provide tools that help businesses leverage cloud computing to operate data centers like "compute utilities," according to CA. Its technology includes a software architecture and algorithms for analyzing and optimizing data center performance. Those tools help IT managers better monitor their IT systems and improve them to support business goals—an increasingly difficult task as computing environments become more complex with composite applications and cloud computing.