CA Cloud, Virtualization Push Goes Federal With Base Technologies Buy

CA Technologies' cloud and virtualization strategy moved into the federal space Wednesday with the acquisition of privately-held consulting firm Base Technologies. The move gives CA another weapon in the cloud computing and virtualization arms race, one that will help it target federal clients.

Base Technologies, a McLean, Va.-based IT player that has a growing list of federal, commercial and health-care customers, focuses several facets of IT focusing on the management of government IT assets. Base has practices in virtualization management, mainframe technology security, managed IT infrastructure and cloud computing. Founded in 1987, Base Technologies brings to CA Technologies decades of experience in the U.S. Public Sector, along with customers such as the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, National Institutes of Health, Federal Aviation Administration, and Commuter Connections, among others, CA said.

The financial terms of CA's Base Technologies acquisition were not disclosed.

CA said the Base buy expands Islandia, N.Y.-based CA's role as a partner and advisor to public sector customers in all computing environments and platforms, including cloud and virtualization.

"CA Technologies and Base Technologies will provide customers with both deep industry and technical expertise as well as leading management and security products and services for the cloud and virtualization," said Adam Elster, general manager of CA Services, in a statement. "Together, we will help government customers identify the most efficient use of their investments, manage their large-scale programs more effectively, and determine the best use of virtualization and cloud computing."

CA added that the acquisition of Base Technologies boosts the technical capabilities of CA Services and strengthens CA's and its alliance partners' ability to execute on all stages of the federal buying cycle. It also gives CA a better crack at the growing $86 billion market for software and IT services in the federal space, according to data from INPUT's Federal IT Services Industry Outlook.

The Base Technologies acquisition is the most recent in a string of cloud and virtualization-focused acquisitions for CA as the company carves its niche in the growing cloud computing market.

For the last two years, CA has been bulking up its presence in the cloud computing market. In 2010, CA made a host of key cloud acquisitions bringing its cloud computing spending to above $1 billion. The company has also plotted an action plan for the channel and MSPs to leverage the cloud. CA's Cloud Computing Director Adam Famularo has said that CA plans to keep its cloud computing momentum going through 2011.

Base Technologies also represents the second consulting firm acquisition by CA in less than a year. In August 2010, CA acquired 4Base, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based privately held cloud infrastructure and virtualization consulting firm.