Agreement Between CA and Microsoft

CA Technologies announced an agreement with Microsoft Corp. to offer customers itsARCserve Backup and Recovery technology as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering using Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud platform.

The new cloud offering, scheduled for availability in the second half of this year, is part of CA Technologies strategy for bringing rapidly deployable, easy-to-own IT management solutions to market. This solution will be especially attractive in situations where conventional, internally deployed backup-and-restore systems and software implementation may be less financially or operationally appealing, such as small businesses or remote offices that lack the necessary on-site IT staff.

CA Technologies use of Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform for this new solution extends a working relationship between the two companies that has been providing high-value innovation to customers for more than 20 years. This relationship includes support for Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft’s System Center stack.

"CA Technologies’ SaaS data protection solution is designed to help customers cost-efficiently mitigate a wide range of information risks, including system downtime and catastrophic data loss across the customer’s entire IT portfolio," said Walid Abu-Hadba, corporate vice president, Microsoft Corporation. "This announcement underscores the shared commitment of Microsoft and CA Technologies to the continued expansion of the cloud market."

The new solution will be designed to meet the needs of CA Technologies and Microsoft partners-especially those who may incorporate its data protection functionality into their broader cloud-based IT management offerings.

"By leveraging vendor solutions and their own expertise, partners can offer customers the ability to cost-effectively offload routine IT operations," said Mike Crest, general manager, Data Management, CA Technologies. "The combination of our CA ARCserve technology and Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud platform will enable us to offer the partner community a scalable, feature-rich, and fully configurable resource for this growing management services market."