Systems Management Overview

Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) will get a major new release in the second half of 2004. It will be followed by System Center 2005, which integrates MOM 2005 with Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 and delivers additional features that neither product has by itself. SMS will get feature packs to aid client OS deployment and management of mobile devices such as Pocket PCs.

Beyond 2004, SMS will get a Patch Management Update that will enable it to roll out patches using the same scanner and patch database as Windows Update Services version 2 and pull patches from the new, unified Microsoft Update patch Web site. System Center will get releases corresponding to Windows Longhorn releases: System Center version 2 will deliver support for managing Longhorn clients, among other improvements, while System Center version 3 will be the first version to use new monitoring, software installation, and configuration infrastructure currently under development in the Dynamic Systems Initiative. That infrastructure will be delivered in Windows Longhorn Server and Visual Studio Orcas.