Computer Associates on Monday began shipping three components of its planned suite of products aimed at improving management of IBM zSeries mainframe environments.

The products are part of the Unicenter r11 suite, and CA plans to add another eight to nine products over the next few months, says David Hodgson, senior VP for mainframe systems products at CA. "We are trying to focus on core best-of-breed management products on the mainframe," Hodgson says. "Modernization and simplification are the key things we're trying to deliver, along with CA products that all have the same look and feel."

CA is adding NetMaster r11, a management suite for mainframe-connected TCP/IP and SNA networks; CA-OPS/MVS Event Management and Automation r11, an automated systems operation product for IBM's zSeries environments; and CA-SysView Realtime Performance Management r11, which helps systems programmers identify the cause of degraded system performance by reviewing short-term historical data.

The products are designed to work together but can be licensed separately. They're available as part of CA's FlexSelect program, which ties pricing to a measured workload option.