CA Taps Nexio Technologies to Deliver Mainframe 2.0 Out-Tasking to Canadian Customers

Subscription-Based Access to Essential Software and Skills Helps IT Organizations Ensure Data Center Health Despite Resource Constraints

TORONTO, ON.– As part of its far-reaching Mainframe 2.0 initiative, CA (NASDAQ: CA) today named Montreal-based Nexio Technologies as part of its business partner network to deliver Out-Tasking for Canada. Nexio will deliver turnkey management software and services solutions that will enable customers to better govern, manage, and secure their mainframe environments, despite budget and staffing constraints.

CA’s innovative “Out-Tasking” is an accelerated time to value turnkey offering that combines software delivery with well-defined management services in a single subscription-based package. This combined software and services approach helps deliver rapid ROI by enabling customers to quickly and cost-effectively address key mainframe management challenges so that they can more effectively fulfill service-level agreements, maintain policy compliance, and optimize application performance.

Mainframe workloads continue to grow as the mainframe becomes an even more compelling platform because of its reliability, scalability, security, price/performance, and energy-efficiency. At the same time, many IT organizations are experiencing shortfalls in mainframe staffing and skills or extremely heavy workloads. Budget constraints may also prevent them from hiring highly experienced mainframe professionals and deploying advanced management solutions. As a result, some key management processes are not completed or are being done sub-optimally.

Because the software is not directly licensed by the customer and the customer obtains its benefits through a turnkey services offering, the customer may be able to fund Out-Tasking from operating budgets rather than from restricted IT capital budgets.

Business Alliance with Nexio Technologies

CA selected Nexio Technologies, a leader in IT governance risk and control services, as its Canadian Out-Tasking business partner due to the depth of its experience in mainframe consulting and the quality of its service management. Nexio has been a CA business partner for more than 10 years.

“Decades of experience with mainframes have taught us how IT organizations can fall short of their objectives and how to best remediate operational shortfalls,” said François Dansereau, chief information officer, Nexio Technologies. “With CA’s Out-Tasking offering, Canadian mainframe users will be able to rapidly leverage the power of our expertise and the power of CA’s technical expertise with a single, economical decision.”

The initial Out-Tasking solution to be delivered by Nexio will be CA Compliance Out-Tasking for Mainframe Security. This solution features:

* Mainframe Access Control, based on CA Cleanup, which provides routine maintenance of security definitions. This service includes hands-on assistance in the identification and removal of obsolete, unused and rogue user IDs and access rights.
* Mainframe System Integrity, based on CA Auditor for z/OS®, which identifies vulnerabilities and opportunities for improvement in an organization’s z/OS security policies. This service includes hands-on assistance in identification and interpretation of potential security issues associated with the status and/or changes in status of the z/OS operating system, programs, files, and libraries.

CA’s Compliance Out-Tasking for Mainframe Security is delivered remotely and includes a software subscription, customized software implementation, baseline assessment, around-the-clock monitoring, on-demand reporting, periodic performance reviews, knowledge transfer, and expert advice on relevant mainframe management best practices.

“A shortage of experienced mainframe experts in Canada has led the many organizations that rely on mainframes to look for outside help,” said Jimmy Fulton, vice president and country manager, CA Canada. “Together, CA and Nexio are responding to this need with well-defined offerings that address the most common and egregious shortfalls in customers’ internal capabilities.”

Nexio expects to begin delivering Out-Tasking services to new and existing CA customers by February, 2009. In the United States, Out-Tasking solutions will initially be delivered in conjunction with CA service provider Acxiom® Corporation, a leading provider of IT services including remote infrastructure management and mainframe hosting.

Mainframe 2.0 Initiative and the Mainframe in Canada

Out-Tasking is part of CA’s Mainframe 2.0 initiative, which addresses both the evolving role of the mainframe and the fact that many IT organizations are facing the retirement of their most experienced mainframe professionals. Key mainframe challenges to be addressed by Out-Tasking will include compliance requirements, capacity planning, chargeback reporting, database management, service level management, change management, and system diagnostics.

CA has been helping global companies make the most of their mainframe investments for over 30 years. The mainframe continues to be the core platform for the global enterprise—running business-essential applications and hosting some of the world’s most critical data. In its 2007 ESM/Virtualization Worldwide Survey*, The Strategic Counsel estimated that more than 30 per cent of Canadian enterprise-class organizations continue to rely on mainframes as an important computing platform. The Strategic Counsel also estimated that more than 16 per cent of Canadian enterprise-class businesses rely on mainframes as their most mission-critical platform.

*The ESM/Virtualization Worldwide Survey was conducted by The Strategic Counsel between January 2 and February 2, 2007. A total of 969 e-mail and telephone surveys were conducted among a random sample of IT professionals throughout North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific/Japan. Respondent organizations were limited by size to organizations with 500 or more employees.