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Web services in the spotlight at CA World

By Denise Dubie
Network World, 04/29/02

ORLANDO - Computer Associates last week joined the conga line of companies supporting Web services, promising users ease of use, management and security for the emerging technology.

The 10,000 attendees at CA World heard the company say it plans to integrate software and development tools from across its six brands to support and manage Web services from Microsoft's .Net portfolio. The company also detailed plans for helping users manage wireless networks and storage resources.

CA will support Web services via its portal software, CleverPath 4.0, which supports key Web services components such as Universal Description, Discovery and Integration and Simple Object Access Protocol that support directory and messaging functions, respectively. CleverPath runs on a Windows, IBM AIX, HP-UX, Linux or Sun Solaris server. The software pulls data from disparate sources such as a database, a corporate intranet or company accounting records, and populates a user's desktop with that information via a Web interface.

The idea is to eliminate the need to write additional code to let devices and applications communicate with each other. CleverPath supports Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and Microsoft .Net environments, and it uses XML as a language to communicate with other third-party tools.

"Standards such as Web services expose data locked away in back-end systems, which is hard to manage and integrate," said CA's CTO Yogesh Gupta in a keynote speech.

CA's Web services kick comes on the heels of competitor IBM Tivoli's news that all its software products had been reinstrumented to support J2EE and .Net applications, and other Web services initiatives (see story). Hurwitz Group analyst Jasmine Noel says CA is "on track" with its Web services efforts, while IBM Tivoli is still playing catch up.

Available now, pricing for CleverPath Portal 4.0 starts at $25,000.

Also in portal news from the show, CA announced its BrightStor Portal software, which uses XML to talk with storage devices and software and displays all the data in a single management console for storage administrators. BrightStor Portal runs on Windows NT/2000, Solaris and HP-UX platforms. The tool not only gives users a one-stop shop for managing storage across their network but also performs some corrective action. When a device is introduced to the network, BrightStor Portal will use predefined rules to allocate storage and provision resources to the device and its users.

Jack Norton, senior systems analyst with engineering company Parker Hannifan in Cleveland, said in the past year, the storage needs at his company grew but his time to manage those needs did not. The built-in automation of the CA products worked best for Norton. As a BrightStor Portal beta tester since January, Norton reported that the time it took him to resolve storage issues on his network dropped from 20 hours per week to less than an hour per week.

In other news, CA announced two products that can manage wireless networks and mobile devices:

Unicenter Wireless Network Management works without agents to perform discovery and monitoring of wireless devices, such as wireless LANs, access points and stations. Server software is installed on Windows NT/2000, AIX and Linux servers. Using sniffer-like technology with the built-in intrusion-detection software, Unicenter can sense any unauthorized users on the network. And if a rogue user attempts to tie into a wireless net, Unicenter would not allow it.

Unicenter Mobile Device Management performs software delivery and configuration management to mobile devices such as laptops, handheld PDAs and Internet cell phones. The software runs on a Windows, Unix or Linux server and keeps track of software versions, licenses and applications running mobile devices, storing the information for inventory purposes.

The new Unicenter offerings are in the early stages of beta use and are slated for general availability during the summer. Pricing is not yet final.

Stacy Cowley of the IDG News Service contributed to this story.