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Bye Bye BrightStor

3:15 PM -- The company formerly known as Computer Associates is going minimalist. In what it terms a "mission to unify and simplify IT management," CA Inc. (NYSE: CA) is renaming all of its products. According to a prepared statement on the company's Website: "Our goal is to make it easier to focus on meeting [customers'] IT management software needs."

CA is truncating the "sub-brands" that ran through CA's product catalog. What used to be called CA BrightStor CA-ASM2 Backup and Restore, for instance, is now CA ASM2 Backup and Restore. The BrightStor Arcserve series is also being renamed, though the new monikers are "TBD" on CA's continually updated product names list.

CA could stand a bit of the simpler life. The ongoing fallout from malfeasance charges that resulted in the penal march of multiple former executives, including ex-CEO Sanjay Kumar, continues to embarrass. At the end of January, for instance, former SVP of finance and administration David Kaplan was sentenced to home detention, while former CFI Ira Zar got seven months' jail time and seven months' home detention.

No wonder CA wants to break with the past.

CA is also seeking distance from poor marketing of its wares by indirect suppliers. In recent earnings, the company showed poor storage sales, which CEO John Swainson chalked up to trouble with indirect sales partners. (See CA Reports Earnings.)

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