CA: It's Your Relationship

MasterIT, a managed service provider in Bartlett, Tenn., became a CA channel partner several months ago when it began carrying the Instant Recovery On Demand service. "This is a competitive differentiator for us. It's a natural extension of our already successful data security practice," said J. Michael Drake, chairman and CEO. While MasterIT offers data backup and recovery services, Drake said clients in health-care and finance industries need business-continuity services with zero downtime.

Last month CA unveiled another channel-only product: CA Erwin Data Profiler, a tool for scrutinizing a business' stored data as part of a broader master data management program. The software, for example, helps administrators identify what information a company has in its customer database, evaluate the quality of the data and determine if it matches a database's structural design. Data profiling is often a critical first phase for master data management and data warehousing projects.

The product is based on Exeros Inc.'s data-profiling software, which CA is carrying under a distribution agreement with Exeros, and the software is integrated with the CA Erwin Data Modeler software.

While CA Erwin Data Profiler can be used by large companies, its $4,000-per-user price makes it a strong sell for midsize businesses, said Donna Burbank, senior principal product marketing manager. CA is particularly recruiting channel partners that provide data management consulting and related services to carry the product, she said.

Instant Recovery On Demand was one of several SaaS products CA introduced at the user/partner conference in Las Vegas. The company also unveiled CA Clarity PPM On Demand, an on-demand version of the company's project and portfolio management application that helps organizations govern IT expenses, staffing, investments and projects, and better align IT with business objectives. Clarity PPM On Demand also will be sold through channel partners, but unlike Instant Recovery On Demand, it won't be exclusive to the channel.

CA Clarity PPM software was judged the "Best PPM Technology Solution" and "Best Portfolio Analysis," and CA was named "Best PPM Strategy & Services Provider" at Everything Channel's 2008 Project and Portfolio management Summit in Vienna, Austria, in December.

A third SaaS product CA introduced at the November conference, CA GRC Manager On Demand, is largely being sold through the company's direct-sales force. That software is used to manage governance, risk and compliance initiatives across a company. CA at the time also made a number of product and technology announcements in the areas of security, service management, enterprise IT management, business services integration, and virtualization and cloud computing.