Unicenter ServicePlus service aware is a key component of CA's managing on-demand computing strategy. By enabling devices and applications to proactively and automatically interact with the help desk, it embeds self-management into the on-demand computing infrastructure.

With Unicenter ServicePlus service aware, developers can easily create Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 applications that automatically report service alerts to an enterprise help desk and initiate workflows that can automatically fix the problem. Common problems can therefore be solved with little or no manual intervention and without requiring extensive coding by application developers.

CA is providing templates at http://ca.com/serviceaware as part of an open Web services architecture to enable and promote the creation of Unicenter ServicePlus service aware applications and is working with companies such as Microsoft Corp. to embed this technology in their applications.

"IT support organizations are under pressure to reduce costs as the complexity of their supporting infrastructure continues to increase," said Jacob Lamm, CA senior vice president for Unicenter ServicePlus. "CA is directly addressing this challenge by initiating fundamental changes to enterprise support through a self-healing IT environment. Our relationship with Microsoft is a significant step in launching this initiative."

In collaborating with Microsoft, CA is helping to ensure that the broadest constituency of corporate developers has the tools to build service functionality into their applications to reduce total cost of ownership.