Computer Associates International Inc.’s roadmap for the products it gained in its recent acquisition of Platinum Technology Inc. focuses largely on integration with existing CA technologies.
“First of all, we’re going to enhance and extend existing products, and second, offer them as stand-alone products,” said Yogesh Gupta, senior vice-president of product strategy for Islandia, N.Y.-based CA.
During last month’s CA World 99 user conference in New Orleans, Gupta said the company had received specific feedback from Platinum technology users.
“What we heard across the board was, first of all, ‘Please make sure you support these products’…The second one was, ‘Please continue to offer these products as stand-alone offerings’…And the third thing said was, ‘Integrate them. Platinum sold us a vision of integration, but they never delivered,'” Gupta explained.
To that end, CA made commitments in six areas:
Application development:
Leveraging Platinum’s products for managing application development and deployment, CA will offer the ADvantage TND suite that integrates with the Jasmine TND infrastructure.
Data warehousing and business intelligence:
CA will extend Unicenter TND and Jasmine TND to support DecisionBase TND, a suite that addresses analysis and design, deployment, inventory, intelligence and visualization. DecisionBase TND also leverages Advisor TND to provide a Web portal that will support warehouse development and deployment.
Enterprise performance and database management:
CA will integrate Platinum technologies with its Unicenter TNG framework and Jasmine TND to create ManageIT, a suite for monitoring and managing databases, applications and underlying systems.
DB2 solutions:
CA will use Platinum’s strengths in IBM DB2 management to provide a portfolio of solutions for implementing and maintaining DB2 applications.
Job management:
AutoSys will be offered both as a stand-alone product and integrated with CA’s scheduling tools.
Security:
CA will enhance Platinum/Memco SeOS and Single Sign-On security tools through integration with CA offerings. Also, CA will offer eTrust, a security suite that supports e-business initiatives.
Jonathan Eunice, analyst and IT advisor at Illuminata in Nashua, N.H., expressed faith that CA would make good on its plans for integration. Eunice said CA has long been a strong acquisition company on the basis of its ability to integrate and this should be no exception.
“I don’t see any reason why this shouldn’t be successful…CA has tremendous financial management as well as technology management,” Eunice said.
In fact, he said, many of the products that Platinum had “are actually additive to CA.” Tools such as ERwin and BPwin, for data and business process modelling, are tools in the application design and management spectrum, functionality which CA did not offer.
The “largest win” for users is likely to be in the application development area, Eunice added. However, the same may not be true in the data warehousing space where CA may find more difficulty with integration.
“The philosophy of CA data management is a little different from the data warehousing philosophy, so I think there is some bridging to be done there in terms of culture,” he explained.
Rebecca Duncan, a research director specializing in security issues at Gartner Group Inc. in Delran, N.J., said the recent acquisition by Platinum of Memco is an area of concern for those in the security industry because it puts the control of products in the hands of fewer vendors.
“The single sign-on market does not have a lot of players in it. For CA to suddenly now have three of the products out of seven out there is a concern,” she said.
“There is not a lot of selection of solutions and it comes down to [how] the individual companies have managed the products, because you don’t necessarily want to see the product go away,” Duncan explained.
According to Eunice, most products will likely thrive under the direction of CA. He said most of those CA gained in previous acquisitions would probably not even be shipping today had their vendors not been acquired.
“I think the Platinum products that people really care about — ERwin, BPwin, AutoSys, the ones that are really critical — have a better hope of survival over the next five years…than they did as part of the undisciplined and money-losing Platinum organization,” Eunice said.
