Ready To Meet Demand For On-Demand SystemsReady To Meet Demand For On-Demand Systems

Computer Associates is trying to stand toe-to-toe with IBM in the emerging market for "on-demand computing" software, which lets companies allocate computing power to applications that need it and IT managers change software configurations based on business needs. CA hasn't been a player in this sector, but new software due this summer could help it catch up.

The vendor plans to bring to market three new or updated Unicenter packages that can analyze network traffic, middleware, and integration software to discover which servers, routers, disks, and software components are associated with certain business processes, such as inventory look-ups and credit checks, and then help shunt resources to needy apps. "If you're going to do on-demand computing, that has to be part of the picture," says Yogesh Gupta, chief technology officer at CA. The offerings include version 3.1 of Unicenter Network and Systems Management, a "dynamic reconfiguration" option for Unicenter that CA says can determine over- or underutilized resources, and management software for webMethods Inc.'s integration package.

CA, one of the largest suppliers of software to manage computing systems on company networks, needs to prove it can help customers extract more value from expensive servers that often run below peak capacity. Its challenge is to respond to vendors such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard that supply hardware and software for utility computing efforts, analyst Richard Ptak says.

CA plans to emphasize that its software works well across Linux, Unix, Windows, and mainframe platforms. "It's about using what you have more effectively and efficiently," CA chairman and CEO Sanjay Kumar said in his keynote address at the NetWorld+Interop show last week. "It doesn't matter whether you've got a Sun server, a couple of IBMs, and an HP in the mix; we'll work with what you have."

IBM, which took an early lead in this market, last week introduced hardware, software, and a pricing plan designed to let customers build infrastructures better able to respond to changes in IT demand. New virtualization capabilities embedded in its WebSphere application server will let customers manage business applications running on different servers as a single environment and shift computing resources where they're most needed. IBM also wants to add more flexibility to server environments with Web Server Provisioning software that automatically sets up Web servers to handle tasks such as activating more processors to accommodate spikes in demand that a credit-card company might experience during a holiday season. New TotalStorage SAN volume controllers, integration servers, and file systems aim to help users virtualize storage.

IBM also introduced a fixed monthly pricing scheme for various hardware offerings. Blade-server customers can buy a 14-blade server and pay for half the blades up front, with the option of activating and paying for the other seven over a six-month period. Customers of its Shark storage system will have the option of activating up to an additional 6.9 terabytes of storage in their systems during the first half year.