A Brand New Day For CA

Computer Associates is no more. The vendor is shedding its name in favor of its acronym and with that change, the often-beleagured company is hoping to leave its image as a frequent subject of scandal in the past. CA's name change, announced at the company's CA World user and partner conference this week, is the least significant aspect of the company's efforts to shift direction and improve its fortunes. The company also rolled out more than two dozen new products and revealed plans to tighten integration work with third-party sofware vendors and integrators.The good news for CA is this is all being well-received by the industry. Beta testers are reporting that the company's products are well integrated and deliver the crucial connection between IT management and business processes. Partners are also pleased with what they are hearing -- and more significantly -- seeing from CA.

All of this is welcome news from a vendor who has stumbled through accounting drama, market disappointments, crises in leadership, and repeated complaints from customers about poor integration. Naturally, only time will tell how well CA is able to continue executing on its strategy. But at least for now, it looks like the new, improved CA has a sound strategy to execute on, and that is a very promising start.