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October 2011 - Posts

Get a Sneak Peek of the Next Release of CA Process Automation at CA World

Published: October 31 2011, 10:00 AM | no comments
by Brandon Whichard

CA World 2011 is just around the corner...and there is a lot to be excited about! The CA Process Automation team is excited because during the show we are going to open the curtain for a few days to give folks an early look at the next product release. There are some great new features and it will be a pity if folks miss out since some of the improvements have to do with what many already consider the marketing-leading UI for Run Book Automation (RBA).

I really liked Umair Khan's recent post about getting more out of your CA Technologies investments by joining fellow customers and CA Technologies experts, and immersing yourself in information that will pay dividends to you professionally and which inevitably means better IT for your company.

CA Technologies has become, in the last 12 months or so, one of the planet's recognized leaders in IT Process Automation (ITPA).  Because CA Process Automation can make a huge difference to the ROI companies get from CA Technologies and other vendors' products (such as VMware vCloud Director), I'm surprised that our ITPA leadership position is not more widely known by our customers. 

It seems only a few IT departments are aware of the value they can uncork with CA Process Automation...and the fact that all our pre-engineered integrations for CA Technologies products are free. For example, do you need to automate an IT process that involves CA Service Desk and CA Workload Automation or do you need to automate an end-to-end process involving CA Spectrum, CA Configuration Automation, and CA IT Asset Manager? You can and the pre-engineered integrations are free! 

Thinking about it more, I suppose you folks who are reading this post, are probably the same ones who know the incentives for using CA Process Automation. So here is a challenge for you enlightened folks: try to identify the different CA Technologies products being shown at CA World that leverage CA Process Automation under the covers of their demo. As an aside, from a product marketing guy's perspective, it is very cool when your product is core to the value proposition of other products.

I'll give you a big hint for one of those products: Umair's recent post said:

"Perhaps one of the hottest topics in the workload space is the convergence of process and workload automation. We have multiple sessions covering this topic, ranging from our vision to a customer actually sharing how they are using the two technologies to drive higher efficiencies within their organization."

...OK, so now you only have to find the other three product demos using CA Process Automation.

Of course, a lot more will be going on at CA World beyond product demos. There will be some great sessions and a chance for you to mix it up with dedicated subject matter experts (some of whom even work for CA Technologies).  I encourage you to look at the agenda builder and add CA Process Automation sessions to your agenda.  I know CA Technologies Kaj Wierda and Mark Sigler, and VMWare's Terry Lyons will be great!  To get you started his is a link to one of Kaj's sessions:

In case you haven't registered yet...here's the link.  I hope you can make it!

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By: Brandon Whichard
Brandon Whichard is part of the product marketing team working in CA's Virtualization and Service Automation Business Unit. He is responsible for promoting and evangelizing CA’s Data Center Automation solutions. Prior to joining CA Technologies, Brandon held a variety of product management and marketing...
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Virtual Desktops Aren’t the Bees Knees?

Published: October 26 2011, 10:00 AM | 2 Comment(s)
by Allan Andersen

I flew back to New York this week after attending VMword Europe 2011 in my old hometown of Copenhagen. I had expected that there would be more focus on virtual desktops and end-user computing than last year, and I was not disappointed. Sessions, demos, and keynotes all had end-user computing at center stage; projects like Horizon and Octopus were described and demoed in great detail. Keynotes at vendor conferences in general have to be provocative, challenging and memorable, and Steve Herrod, CTO and Senior VP of R&D at VMware, was all of those things.

But what was most interesting to me is that VMware is putting VMware View and virtual desktops in the backseat, referring to it as a "stepping stone" for the new world of end-user computing, where Windows will be a relic of the past sitting next to the Walkman and telephone answering machines. Well, before we accept the ultimate demise of the Windows desktop at the hands of VMware, let's separate some of the drivers behind the new world of end-user computing.

Consumerization, social media, mobility, bring your own Apple-device to work, etc. are absolutely affecting IT departments all over, and end-user computing as it has been done for the past 10-20 years is in for an overhaul. And while I absolutely agree that virtual desktops are not the ultimate answer, they do have an important role to play. The problem is the combination of vendor hype and customer desire for something new/different in order to deal with the pressures of the above challenges has created unrealistic expectations for virtual desktops. So, now that VMware is acknowledging that VDI is the not the end-all and be-all, maybe we can finally start getting realistic about virtual desktops. They will find their place in many organizations for security, compliance and flexibility, and live happily along-side many other new technologies that were once poised to change the world forever.

Also, rest assured that Windows-based physical desktops are going to be part of the corporate environment for many years to come; they are great at content creation, they have amazing local performance, and they are very cost-effective. Not to mention that it is a bit amusing that VMware is actually prolonging the demise of Windows with technology such as ThinApp and Fusion that actually helps organizations run Windows applications more effectively.

The future of end-user computing will be different and we all have our own predictions: personalized, context-sensitive, dynamic workspaces; HTML5 WebTops; and Universal Cloud Clients, to name just a few. We all envision a future where applications, data and resources flow freely between devices and are instantly accessible, secure and compliant. However there is one similarity that is common among each prediction and that is the notion of user-centric versus device-centric. Users are fast becoming one of the main drivers behind the evolution of the desktop - so get ready, identity-driven computing will be coming to a store near you!

For more information on VDI and the future of the desktop, visit our Desktop Transformation Resource Center at www.ca.com/desktoptransformation.

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By: Allan Andersen
Allan Andersen is a vice president of product management in CA Technologies Virtualization and Automation customer solutions business. In this role, Allan is responsible for the strategic positioning and product management activities for CA Technologies IT Client Management and IT Asset Management solutions...
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Take Control of Network Change and Configuration

Published: October 24 2011, 10:56 AM | no comments
by Bill Talbot

Did you know that over 60% of network problems and outages are caused by change?  Whether it's mistakes made when manually changing devices, setting poor configurations that cause problems later, or using inconsistent standards, it's no wonder why IT and network staff are gun shy about making even minor changes to the network infrastructure.  And guess what?  New initiatives, such as virtualization and cloud computing, are only adding to the challenge and risks.  While new virtual servers can be spun up and down in a matter of minutes, the network infrastructure supporting these dynamic environments typically requires days and weeks to change-properly.

Enter CA Network Automation

CA Network Automation, the newest member of our Virtualization & Automation solution portfolio, aims to minimize these risks and challenges by automating network change, intelligently managing device configurations and reducing the potential for human error. It enables IT organizations to take control of network configurations and changes proactively - making it easy to identify hard-to-find configuration problems before they impact performance, and meet compliance requirements in the process. CA Network Automation utilizes built-in rules, subject matter expertise and industry best practices to audit, analyze and automate network change faster and more efficiently -so you can better support new initiatives that require more a dynamic network infrastructure.

Take Back Control of Your Network

CA Network Automation can help you take control of network configuration and change, resulting in significant value to your organization including:

  • Improving IT and network staff productivity and efficiency by automating repetitive, manual network operational and configuration tasks
  • Enhancing network performance and availability by proactively finding and fixing issues before they negatively impact services, transactions and the end user experience
  • Enforcing standards and maintaining compliance by proactively monitoring defined rules and policies as well as reporting on and remediating policy violations

So if you are interested in managing your network more proactively, please attend Taking Control  of Network Change and Configuration with Automation at the upcoming CA World to learn how CA Network Automation may be able to help.

For additional information about our Virtualization and Automation solutions, visit http://www.ca.com/us/service-automation.aspx, http://www.ca.com/virtual, and http://www.ca.com/us/capacity-management.aspx or follow us on Twitter @CAvirtualAuto.

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By: Bill Talbot
Bill Talbot is a Product Marketing Manager for Automation solutions at CA Technologies. He has over 15 years of B-to-B marketing, sales and alliance development experience. Prior to CA Technologies, Bill founded and ran VIA Consulting, a marketing services firm that helped high tech businesses transition...
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Virtualization and Automation - Top Five Reasons to Attend CA World 2011!

Published: October 20 2011, 10:39 AM | no comments
by David Resnic

Following are 5 reasons to attend CA World 2011 beyond the fact that our Virtualization and Automation team has scheduled more than 40 breakout sessions across 3 tracks, including several hands on labs, 10 expert chats and 13 product demonstrations all for you to learn how automation and analytics improve how you build and manage flexible physical, virtual and cloud infrastructures to accelerate application and business service delivery.  

1. Get Agile, Fast: CA World 2011 is all about "IT at the Speed of Business." Learn how CA Technologies automation and analytics improve how you plan and deliver applications and business services across physical, virtual and cloud infrastructures. We'll demonstrate how our solutions improve your agility and quality of service while reducing capital expenditures, operating expenses and compliance risks.You also will have a chance to get hands-on with the technology, talk to other CA Technologies customers who are seeing real value from these solutions, and speak with the experts that design and build your products.

2. Within the Service Automation track, learn how our solutions help you adapt to meet the demands of your changing world by automating and standardizing processes to help you deliver fast, consistent services with less effort, so when new business demands arise, your business is ready to respond.

3. Within our Infrastructure Automation track, we'll share knowledge and solutions for creating a flexible foundation that unifies the management of physical and virtual environments into one cohesive system. We'll demonstrate solutions for building a dynamic infrastructure that automatically allocates and provisions resources in response to changing conditions, so you can ensure a smooth transition to cloud computing. You'll learn about new ways to leverage cohesive, unified physical, virtual and cloud automation across all data center domains, including VMs, servers, networks and clients as well as exciting new infrastructures from VCE, NetApp® and Cisco®.

4. Within our Virtualization Management track, we've focused on making sure that the benefits you'll get from virtualization, such as capital savings and improved IT agility, are not overshadowed by the management overhead it creates. You'll learn about virtualization management solutions that help you overcome virtual "stall and sprawl" and how our solutions' full lifecycle support enables you to provision, assure, and configure both your virtual and physical environments. We can help you plan, size, and configure virtual deployments-and you'll get a chance to see and experience it at CA World 2011.

5. Peer Know-How: There will be no shortage of CA Technologies customer and partner presentations - check out the CA World 2011 Agenda Builder to see them all. 25 customer and partner testimonials and in-depth presentations will shed some light on how our Virtualization and Automation solutions can help you achieve the flexibility, visibility and control you need to successfully meet the demands of your changing world.

These are just 5 more reasons to register for CA World 2011. Make sure to sign up for the Virtualization and Automation Focus Area to receive all the information about sessions, tracks and events at the conference.

Register today!

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By: David Resnic
David is senior principal of communications at CA, working with the Virtualization and Service Automation teams. He has more than 18 years of B2B and B2C public relations experience, working with dozens of companies such as Arsenal Digital Solutions, E Ink, Hasbro, MobileAccess, and Spalding Sports Worldwide...
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Avoiding Islands of Virtualization

Published: October 19 2011, 07:51 AM | no comments
by Brandon Whichard

Virtualization has been widely embraced by IT over the last several years. This has led to significant cost savings but also has had unintended consequences. It's not unusual for one company or department to have multiple installations of VMware deployed. We call these "VMware Islands" because they each require their own management.

To build a bridge between these islands you need to start looking at the larger IT processes. What are the virtual servers being used for? Who is requesting them? How are you tracking your costs? How do you know when to de-provision a VM? Most importantly, how do you automate and orchestrate the entire process?

With today's announcement, CA Technologies has introduced a new solution for solving these problems. Using the new CA Process Automation connector for VMWare vCloud® DirectorTM, customers can automate a variety of vCloud Director management tasks directly from CA Process Automation. By automating these common tasks, customers are able to further reduce costs and deliver service faster.

Want to learn more? Come by booth #93 at VMworld® Europe to see a demo.

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By: Brandon Whichard
Brandon Whichard is part of the product marketing team working in CA's Virtualization and Service Automation Business Unit. He is responsible for promoting and evangelizing CA’s Data Center Automation solutions. Prior to joining CA Technologies, Brandon held a variety of product management and marketing...
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