CA Acquires Cassatt Technology

CA, Inc. (CA) has acquired technology and assets from Cassatt Corporation, the companies said today. The deal gives new life to the data center management software developed by Cassatt, which had been seeking an acquirer and was recently described by CEO Bill Coleman as "close to the end." It subsequently found a buyer for its technology in CA, a major player in data center management and automation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Cassatt initially sought to gain a foothold for its software in energy management as a tool to help data center managers automate the cycling down of idle servers. Cassatt's larger goal was the market for managing private clouds, but it failed to gain traction in an increasingly crowded market for cloud solutions.

"Cassatt invented an elegant and innovative architecture and algorithms for data center performance optimization," said Donald Ferguson, CA’s Chief Architect. "Incorporating Cassatt’s analysis and optimization capabilities into CA’s world-class business-driven automation solution will enable cloud-style computing to reliably drive efficiencies in both on-premises, private data centers and off-premises, utility data centers. We believe the result will be a uniquely comprehensive infrastructure management approach, spanning monitoring, analysis, planning, optimization and execution."

"Cassatt has long been a champion for using a cloud-style architecture to manage data centers like a 'compute utility,'" said Coleman. "This is a great move for both organizations because of the vision we share—delivering a new, dramatically more efficient way to run data centers. The acquisition of Cassatt’s data center automation technology and expertise by CA, one of the world’s largest and most successful software companies and an innovator in business-driven automation, will help make this vision into a reality for customers."

Cassatt’s Rob Gingell, executive vice president of Product Development and Chief Technology Officer, and Steve Oberlin, Chief Scientist and co-founder, have joined CA, along with their team of developers, engineers, and other key employees. In addition, CA has acquired several Cassatt patents and patent applications, as well as other intellectual property.

"This acquisition strengthens CA’s ability to deliver on the promise of Lean IT for our customers," said Ajei Gopal, executive vice president of the Products and Technology Group at CA. "With the addition of Cassatt’s engineering team and advanced data center automation assets, CA will accelerate its development of software that helps customers make more intelligent, business policy-based decisions. We are ensuring that CA will continue to be at the forefront of managing our customers’ evolving IT environments."