InfoStor : CA offers SaaS-based DR service, November 2008 Page 1

By Kevin Komiega

November 25, 2008 -- Add CA to the list of software vendors turning their data protection products into services. The company has announced the availability of CA Instant Recovery On Demand, a hosted and managed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) version of its CA XOsoft High Availability technology that protects application servers in small to medium-sized business (SMB) environments.

The new business continuity and disaster recovery service is targeted at SMBs that need continuous availability, but suffer from the staff and budget restrictions inherent to today's economic climate and prevent them from shelling out cash for in-house products.

The Instant Recovery On Demand service is based on CA XOsoft High Availability software, which protects business applications and data by providing real-time replication and automatic failover for Microsoft Exchange, SQL, IIS, SharePoint, Oracle, Blackberry Enterprise Server and file servers. Heterogeneous replication support is available for Linux and UNIX.

Adam Famularo, senior vice president and general manager for CA's recovery management and data modeling business unit, says Instant Recovery On Demand is being sold exclusively through CA's reseller partners and that CA has built in some incentives to make the service attractive to both end users and partners.

"There is no extensive training involved with this model for our partners or customers. All the reseller has to do is connect the customer to us through a VPN and we manage the rest of the process," says Famularo. "Once the setup is complete, users can begin replicating to our site in about 20 minutes."

Famularo also explains that CA made sure the SaaS service is profitable for all those involved. "We knew we had to do this in a way that would build in hefty margins for our partners compared to the software and services they sell. Our partners are currently making 30 to 40 points on margin with this service without any capital costs," he says. "All the reseller does is manage the monthly billing and then pay us."

The pricing model for CA's Instant Recovery On Demand service is based on the number of servers protected per month and can range from $400 to $800 per server. Length of contract also plays into the pricing.

According to Famularo, an average customer deployment typically involves a three-year commitment with about three protected servers for an average monthly cost of $600 per server.

In addition to Instant Recovery On Demand, CA announced the availability of a pair of SaaS-based services for project and compliance management. The new CA GRC Manager On Demand service helps manage governance, risk and compliance initiatives, and CA Clarity PPM On Demand is a SaaS version of the company's project and portfolio management application that helps organizations govern IT expenses, staffing, investments and projects.

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