CA Expands Support for VMware vSphere, Cisco Virtual Switches

CA is looking to make it easier for enterprises to manage their virtualized data centers and cloud computing environments by enhancing the capabilities of several software solutions to support VMware's vSphere 4 virtualization platform and virtualized network switches from Cisco Systems.

CA announced July 6 that is expanding the reach of its Spectrum Infrastructure Manager, eHealth Performance Manager and Spectrum Automation Manager to create a single, fully integrated management offering for physical and virtual server and network environments. In addition, the solution will manage databases, voice and UC (unified communications) systems, and other networked applications.

Key to the enhanced offering is support for vSphere 4 and Cisco's Nexus 1000V virtual software switch, which can be integrated as an option into vSphere 4.

The move is part of CA's Lean IT initiative, designed to help businesses lower IT costs while improving performance and efficiency.

"With the integration of the Cisco Nexus 1000V and VMware vSphere 4, the lines between physical and virtual network and systems management have blurred," Roger Pilc, corporate senior vice president and general manager of CA's Infrastructure Management and Automation business unit, said in a statement. CA support for the two products "will provide a unique, highly integrated, closed-loop approach to business service assurance and automation."

The new support for the VMware and Cisco products in Spectrum Infrastructure Manager and eHealth Performance Manager will result in improved event correlation and root cause analysis, as well as the ability to identify performance issues in virtualized and cloud computing environments before those problems can impact services, according to CA.

They also will provide interactive reporting capabilities for troubleshooting and historical trend reports to help enterprises in their capacity planning.

The software also will offer consolidated hierarchical views of VMware vCenter Server hosts, data centers, compute clusters, and virtual switches and machines, and will provide an improved automated discovery of physical and virtual network and compute systems.

The software also will detect and track VMotion migrations of VMs from one host to another.