Systems Management Overview

Microsoft has dropped plans for an integrated management product called Systems Center. System Center was to include the Systems Management Server (SMS) client configuration product, the Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) server monitoring product, and integrated reporting and capacity planning functions. Now Microsoft plans to release the reporting and capacity planning functions of Systems Center as separate products, Reporting Manager and Capacity Manager. Systems Center now becomes an umbrella brand for the company’s systems management products.

MOM will get a minor service pack in 2005, followed by a major update, code-named MOM v3, in 2006.

SMS will get an important update in late 2005 to support distribution of patches from Microsoft Update, the company’s updated Web service which delivers Windows, Office, SQL Server, and Exchange patches (and eventually patches for nearly all Microsoft products). A 2006 update to SMS will allow inventory scanning and patching of non-Microsoft applications, among other features. Finally, a major update to SMS is due in late 2006 or early 2007 that will support the new image-based installation technology of Windows Longhorn, among other capabilities.