Systems Management Products

System Center 2012 and 2012 R2 require service packs to qualify for support after July 2016. Shown here are current and expected releases for products in the System Center product line for client, server, and virtual machine management. All System Center products were updated for the 2012 R2 release, and they all can manage Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. On May 12, 2015, Microsoft released two System Center service packs: System Center 2012 SP2 and System Center 2012 R2 SP1. Both service packs support Windows 10. System Center 2012 and System Center 2012 R2 (including Configuration Manager and Endpoint Protection) must be updated to these respective service packs by July 12, 2016, to remain eligible for product support.

Microsoft has not published the Extended support end date for System Center Essentials 2007.

Microsoft generally updates System Center at the same time as Windows Server. The next major release, called System Center 2016 and currently in preview, will likely be released at the same time as Windows Server 2016, in the third quarter of 2016. In the past, System Center has been updated frequently between major releases with cumulative update rollup packages, but that practice might not continue. Instead, Microsoft is likely to adopt a more continuous update process similar to those introduced for Windows 10 (“branches”) and Office (“channels”). The company has already adopted this update process for Configuration Manager.