Computer Associates keeps it simple

Business software giant Computer Associates wants to keep it simple.

Best known for a sprawling array of high-end database and management applications, CA will add a software technique it calls "neugents" to its portfolio tomorrow, a technology that is intended to automate numerous network tasks for administrators.

The scheduled introduction of the so-called neural technology at an event in New York has been a foregone conclusion for much of this year, since CA made the neugents part of a demonstration in April of new capabilities for its flagship Unicenter suite of management software.

The "neugent" technology consists of a series of "smart" software "agents" that rest of devices distributed throughout a network. CA gained the technology via the acquisition of AI Ware, a veteran provider of predictive software applications.

The technology is often thought of in the same vein as "artificial intelligence," since the software can essentially analyze network problems and react to them without human interference.

Agents residing on specific devices, such as a network router or a server system, can collect data, feed it into a predictive software engine, and a resulting solution will be triggered, if necessary.

A likely use of the technology is in performance monitoring, for example, where the application can learn what are normal thresholds for various network elements and what are not, adjusting as a network continues to run.

The neugents will likely be sold as add-ons to current versions of the company's Unicenter product, with further integration due next year, with the expected release of Unicenter TND, for The Next Dimension.