CA Buys Archiver

Computer Associates Inc. belatedly got off the sidelines and into the email archiving game today by purchasing startup iLumin Software Services Inc.

CA did not disclose the purchase price, but officials say the deal closed today. CA will immediately start selling iLumins Assentor platform of email and file system archiving, records management, discovery, and litigation support software.

Eventually, CA will integrate iLumin’s archiving into its BrightStor storage management software platform. “Email archiving and management is the next step in our storage management strategy,” says Anders Lofgren, SVP of BrightStor product management.

It's about time. Users have bemoaned CA's lag in bringing backup and archiving capabilities to its wares. According to market research firm IDC, CA placed a distant fourth in market share behind Veritas, IBM, and EMC for the second quarter of 2005, and its revenue dropped more than 15 percent from the previous year -- while the other three increased revenue.

Indeed, other storage software vendors addressed the growing demand for email archiving years ago. The last major deal in this space -- Veritas’s $225 million purchase of KVS -- took place nearly 14 months ago. (See No Brainer: Veritas Buys KVS.) And Veritas, now part of Symantec, got its archiving act together long after EMC purchased Legato and HP picked up Precise. (See EMC Gobbles Legato and Persist Packs Away Email.)iLumin too was eager to pair up as competition increases. Big companies like EMC and Symantec are making headway, and there's a plethora of other startups, including AXS-One, C2C Systems, Connected Corp., Open Text Corp., and Zantaz Inc. (See Email Archives Arrive and Outsourcers Beef Up Email Archives). “This was an opportunity to get involved with somebody who gives us the muscle to go to market,” iLumin product marketing SVP Mike Gundling says.

Computer Associates will swallow iLumin whole. Lofgren says all of iLumin’s 100-plus employees will join CA, with CEO Steve Schneider and COO Dave Ellison becoming SVPs in the BrightStor division. iLumin’s team will remain at its Reston, Va., headquarters.

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch

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