CA Technologies Inc. has added new capabilities to its mainframe Linux management product offerings, as well as two partnerships to cover the gaps in functionality that the Islandia, N.Y.-based software company does not have.
The new capabilities are part of CA VM:Manager Suite for Linux on System z and CA Solve Operations Automation. Integrated management enhancements to the former of the two product lines include tape management for tape creation by applications running Linux on System z, and for the ability to catalog, secure and control those tapes.
“You don’t have to manage them as a separate silo,” said Mark Combs, distinguished senior vice-president for mainframe at CA Technologies.
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Enhancements to CA Operations Automation include the capability to manage Linux applications as if they were System z applications and “basically just integrate those operations into your holistic operations,” said Combs.
The two new partnerships announced in the area of mainframe Linux management are with independent software vendors Innovation Data Processing Inc. and Velocity Software Inc. for more cost-cutting Linux management capabilities that CA Technologies doesn’t offer in its own portfolio.
Combs said customers who want Linux management for System z are those that have already heavily invested in a mainframe environment and need a reliability and security.
Moreover, Combs added that a growing area appears to be customers using smaller mainframes and running Linux as the sole operating system.
“This offers a way for customers to bring characteristics of the mainframe to this very complicated environment,” said Combs. “These multi-tiered application environments are very complicated if you have different bits and pieces running on all different kinds of platforms. Most companies are in that mode today.”
Michelle Warren, president and founder of Toronto-based MW Research & Consulting, said open source and Linux continues to shape the world of IT network administration, management and operations in terms of the capabilities IT departments use to support their organization’s business units.
“But, in order for IT administrators to take full advantage of its custom design capabilities, they must have current, up-to-date, leading-edge tools,” said Warren.
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