Management, Security Products Need Updates for New OS

Windows Server 2008 was released in Feb. 2008, but many of the Microsoft System Center products for managing it will not come until later in 2008. The delay could affect evaluations and rollouts of Windows Server 2008. The story is similar for server security products—Forefront security products for several current server applications need updates to run on Windows Server 2008.

Management and security software for older server applications, such as previous versions of Exchange and SharePoint, will not be updated to run on Windows Server 2008, partly because those server applications will not themselves run on Windows Server 2008, and even many recent server applications will require installation of a service pack before they are compatible with Windows Server 2008.

(For a list of System Center server management and Forefront security applications that Microsoft will support on Server 2008, see the chart “Windows Server 2008 Support“.)

System Center Servers

System Center is a set of applications that customers use to plan, operate, and manage computer installations, including servers. System Center products currently include the following: