CA to plug IT management gaps with Wily buy

Analysts say CA's bid to buy enterprise management firm Wily Technology is a smart move

CA has started off the year by agreeing another purchase – this time of application management specialist Wily Technology – in a move that analysts said would give enterprise users better access to and choice of IT management tools.

The deal, worth $375m, is designed to help CA fulfil its Enterprise IT Management strategy, a key feature at the CA World event in November.

Wily’s technology is aimed at helping firms to manage their applications and middleware. It is designed to monitor the health and availability of enterprise infrastructure, and detect slowdowns and failures, the vendor said.

The purchase is expected to be complete by early April, and product integration roadmaps are due about 30 days afterwards. CA said that Wily will operate as a separate division within its own Enterprise Systems Management unit.

Other recent CA purchases have included network service management firm Concord Communications and IT management specialist Niku.

Analyst company Gartner said that Wily would begin to fill a hole in CA’s application management line acknowledged by the firm, and would allow the firm’s current enterprise customers to access a competitive J2EE application management platform. “The strength of Wily's support on the mainframe should also complement CA's capabilities on that platform,” added Gartner research vice-president Cameron Haight in a research note.

Meanwhile, Gartner advised existing Wily customers to take action now to strengthen their support contracts prior to the purchase completion.

However, further measures could still be needed to fill out CA’s capabilities in the application management arena. Haight foresaw more acquisitions or internal development to enhance the firm’s support of Exchange, SAP and Oracle products.

Elsewhere, analyst Forrester said that the deal opens up another option for firms looking to purchase IT management tools, creating the only worthy competitor to IBM’s Tivoli range, which currently dominates the market.