Introducing the System Center 2012 lineup

Recent beta releases of System Center 2012 Service Manager and App Controller round out the System Center 2012 product line

Initially envisioned in 2003 as an umbrella over Microsoft Operations Manager and Systems Management Server with consolidated reporting, System Center has grown through several waves of staggered releases. Now with the 2012 version, including eight components and a tweak to the name, here's what we see at the end of October:

Naming changes:

Until now, a product within the suite had the version number (year) - as in System Center Operations Manager 2007 or System Center Configuration Manager 2007. However, the recent release candidates of Configuration Manager and Endpoint Protection show a bit of a difference, moving the year before the product name and into the suite itself - as in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. While that may not seem to be much, focusing on the name of the suite more than an individual component is in line with Microsoft's long-term direction to make the System Center suite more integrated. Here's a brief lineup of the components in the suite:

Available now at release candidate status:

At release candidate status are Configuration Manager, Endpoint Protection, Virtual Machine Manager, and Orchestrator.

Configuration Manager - Among many changes in this version is a flattening of the hierarchy and targeting management towards users rather than machines. The product is now 64-bit as well.

Endpoint Protection - now built on Configuration Manager and renamed from Forefront Endpoint Protection, this is Microsoft's enterprise-class suite of software products, which is now being rebranded under System Center.

Virtual Machine Manager - the newest version of Virtual Machine Manager enables delivery of a private cloud environment through centralized management of virtual machines. This release supports Hyper-V, VMware ESX, and Citrix XenServer.

Orchestrator - based on the Opalis Integration Server product purchased by Microsoft in 2009, Orchestrator provides an automation platform for orchestrating and integrating IT tools to drive down the cost of data center operations while improving the reliability of IT processes.

In public beta:

Operations Manager includes architectural changes to remove the root management server (RMS) requirement, enhanced network monitoring capabilities by incorporating EMC Smarts technology, as well as integrating AVIcode technology for deep application diagnostics and monitoring.

Data Protection Manager provides byte-level backups as changes occur, utilizing Microsoft's Virtual Disk Service and Shadow Copy technologies. Among other enhancements, the 2012 release adds support for item level recovery, even when DPM is running in a virtual machine.

Service Manager, first released in 2010, adds release management, integration with Virtual Machine Manager and Orchestrator, a service catalog, service requests, an entirely new self-service portal, and a data warehouse that includes information from Configuration Manager and Operations Manager. You can define OLAP cubes to create reports using drag and drop in SharePoint or Excel.

App Controller provides a common self-service environment across private and public clouds to help you empower application owners to easily build, configure, deploy, and manage new services.

Wait, there's more!

The Microsoft product for System Center discusses how System Center solutions help you manage your physical and virtual IT environments. The title at the top of the page is now "Microsoft Server and Cloud Platform," and the URL itself now incorporates the word "cloud," as in http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/system-center/default.aspx. Going forward, I wouldn't be surprised to see a continuing emphasis on how System Center enables you to utilize the cloud for your infrastructure.

• Microsoft
• Infrastructure Management
• cloud computing
• cloud management
• Configuration Manager
• Data Protection Manager
• Endpoint Protection
• Operations Manager
• Service Manager
• System Center 2012
• Virtual Machine Manager