Computer Associates Introduces Aggressively-Priced Protection Suites For Small And Medium Businesses
Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE: CA) today introduced five aggressively-priced Protection Suites that meet security, storage and data migration needs of small and medium businesses (SMBs) and provide simplified technology acquisition, deployment and ownership.
Offered in 17 languages, CA's Protection Suites incorporate award-winning antivirus and anti-spyware technology, state-of-the-art automated data backup and restore functions, and advanced system migration technology that reduces the total cost of ownership of PCs. They will be available next month for prices ranging from $325 to $1,099 (U.S. MSRP) for a five-user license.
According to the Yankee Group 2004 SMB IT Infrastructure Survey, 61 percent of SMBs ranked protecting the company from security breaches as their top concern in managing their IT infrastructure, followed by restoring and backing up data to prevent failure. Yankee Group also found that 54 percent of SMBs expect to upgrade their PCs in 2005.
"CA is addressing the needs of a large and often under-protected market segment through our unique, out-of-the-box combination of superb protection and migration technologies," said David Luft, senior vice president of SMB product development at CA. "This will help protect our SMB customers against a full range of diverse data-loss and business-interruption threats, while enabling them to streamline their desktop and server protection processes."
Through product development and acquisition, CA is stepping up its focus on the SMB market and recently announced a separate office responsible for developing and marketing SMB solutions. CA has been selling its eTrust Antivirus and BrightStor ARCserve products to the SMB market for 10 years and acquired Pest Patrol anti-spyware technology in August.
CA has been shipping an earlier version of the Protection Suites in EMEA in five languages since earlier this year. This global release of the Protection Suites adds support for 12 more languages and includes Desktop DNA Migrator, an advanced system migration solution for the SMB market. By streamlining the capture and transfer of user settings and data during a PC refresh, operating system upgrade or desktop recovery, Desktop DNA Migrator reduces downtime while preserving the unique data, settings and preferences of individual users.
CA is also offering Desktop DNA Migrator to SMBs as a standalone solution.
In addition to Desktop DNA Migrator, CA's Protection Suites include eTrust Antivirus, which helps customers fend off the onslaught of viruses while easing antivirus administration and automatically updating virus signatures; eTrust Pest Patrol Anti-Spyware, which detects and removes tens of thousands of "pests" — including spyware, adware, trojans, denial-of-service attack agents, and other backdoor web-based threats — safeguarding PCs from unauthorized access, information theft and diminished system performance; and BrightStor ARCserve Backup for backup-and-restore protection of desktops, laptops, servers and mobile devices.
The five suites are:
CA Desktop Protection Suite for protecting data on users' desktops and laptops.
CA Server Protection Suite for protection of centrally stored and managed data.
CA Business Protection Suite for protection of both server- and desktop-resident data.
CA Business Protection Suite for Microsoft Small Business Server Standard Edition for SMBs using or planning to implement the standard edition of Microsoft's Small Business Server.
CA Business Protection Suite for Microsoft Small Business Server Premium Edition for SMBs using or planning to implement the premium edition of Microsoft's Small Business Server.
"SMBs, like large enterprises, need to secure their data, optimize the efficiency of their IT operations, and minimize the total cost of PC ownership," said Yankee Group analyst Chris Liebert. "CA has successfully identified SMB pain points and, with its Protection Suites, is addressing those challenges."
Availability
CA Protection Suites will be available in North America through CA's trusted agent model, where the Valued-Added Reseller is compensated for influencing the transaction; through channel launch partners CDW, PC Mall and Tiger Direct; and through CA's online store http://store.ca.com. They will be offered in international markets through authorized resellers. Add-on packs will be available in increments of five, ten and 20-user licenses. Customers purchasing version 1.5 in North America will be able to upgrade to version 2.0, scheduled for release this fall, at no additional cost. International markets will be offered version 2.0 as part of the version 1.5 maintenance agreement.
For more information on the CA Protection Suites, please visit http://ca.com/protectionsuites.
About CA
Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE:CA), one of the world's largest management software companies, delivers software and services across operations, security, storage, life cycle and service management to optimize the performance, reliability and efficiency of enterprise IT environments. Founded in 1976, CA is headquartered in Islandia, N.Y., and serves customers in more than 140 countries. For more information, please visit http://ca.com.