System Center Product Timeline

This timeline shows estimated release dates for products in the System Center line. Operations Manager (OM) 2007 became the first 2007 release for the System Center family. Released in late March and replacing Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005, OM 2007 supports monitoring of services that span multiple servers and uses a completely new model-based management pack architecture. An interim service pack or hot fix is planned for late summer or fall to enable OM 2007 to run on and monitor the next version of Windows Server, which is code-named Longhorn and expected in late 2007. The next version of OM, which could be a minor R2 release (shown on the chart) or a major release, is planned for the second half of 2008 and will include EMC Smarts technology for native management of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) network devices.

A minor 3.0 update to Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), Microsoft’s free product for centralized patch management, shipped in May 2007. A new management and monitoring product for smaller businesses, called Essentials 2007, shipped at the same time and contains technology from both WSUS 3.0 and OM 2007.