Lead Analyst: Peter Pawlak [bio]
Posted: Aug. 9, 2004

Microsoft's systems management software has become increasingly important to its customers and to the company. Broadly defined, systems management software helps automate some of the routine work of computer systems administrators, yielding higher availability of IT services with less staff. Recent events suggest that systems management has gained a higher priority at Microsoft and that the company has begun to execute on a plan that, if successful, could reduce the cost of maintaining Microsoft software and make systems running that software more reliable.

This report includes Microsoft's new roadmap for its systems management products and their integration with management features of the Windows operating system. It also outlines recent improvements to two key systems management products, Systems Management Server and Microsoft Operations Manager. (This research was previously published in the Directions on Microsoft Update newsletter.)