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Software giant CA Technologies has acquired government IT consulting firm Base Technologies in a move to add consulting expertise to its virtualization, mainframe and cloud-computing offerings for government agencies and health care providers.
A major player in virtualization and IT management, CA announced the agreement on April 6. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Base has long provided IT consulting to government agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration.
CA will add the technical expertise of Base in infrastructure engineering, virtualization and mainframe systems as it serves those areas of the federal market, as well as the health care sector.
Base and its current leadership will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary under CA.
“It will be business as usual for us in the health care space and federal market, but right off the bat, it gives us a lot more technical capability to deliver to those customers, and greater resources to bid other contracts with other customers, and in the greater health care IT space,” Rob Davies, CEO of Base, told eWEEK.
“Whether it’s providing registry applications for the VA or supporting the transmission of images across DOD networks for supporting the war fighter and injured soldiers as they traverse the health care system there, it’s all about the infrastructure that supports the IT,” he said.
For the National Institutes of Health, Base manages its IT infrastructure for internal staff as well as the scientific communities.
Under CA, Base will have an opportunity to grow its health care IT integration practice in the federal market, including processing storage and application infrastructure, Davies said.
“The acquisition of Base Technologies further expands our role as a strategic partner and advisor to U.S. Public Sector customers on all computing environments and platforms,” Adam Elster, general manager of CA Services, said in a statement.
“CA Technologies and Base Technologies will provide customers with both deep industry and technical expertise as well as leading management and security products and services for the cloud and virtualization,” Elster added.
CA, formerly known as Computer Associates, plans to better capitalize on the $86 billion market for software and IT services, according to the company.
One goal of the acquisition is to help CA’s government customers contain costs through virtualization. Government agencies can reduce costs by using fewer physical servers, Davies said.
“Together, we will help government customers identify the most efficient use of their investments, manage their large-scale programs more effectively, and determine the best use of virtualization and cloud computing,” Elster said.
“Generally, this acquisition gives CA more capabilities in the unique and difficult-to-penetrate government segments that are trying to implement virtualization base-consolidation efforts to contain costs,” Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group, wrote in an email to eWEEK.
“The acquisition should almost immediately give CA some advantages here and help drive that cost savings in a segment that is almost rabid to get it,” he added.
In addition, the deal could also help rein in health care costs, Enderle suggested. “Health care has been under a lot of pressure in particular to contain costs, and this could help significantly in the efforts to reach related cost-containment goals.”