Systems Management Products

The current release of System Center arrived with Windows Server 2012 R2 in Oct. 2013. Shown here are current and expected releases for products in the System Center line for client, server, and virtual machine management. Not shown here is Endpoint Protection (formerly Forefront Endpoint Protection), which joined the System Center 2012 line. (See the illustration “Security Products“.) All System Center products were updated for the 2012 R2 release, they all can run on Windows Server 2012 R2, 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 packs support the Windows 10 release. System Center 2012 and System Center 2012 R2 must be updated to these respective service packs by July 12, 2016, in order to remain eligible for product support.

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

Note that after consolidating the individual System Center Products into the System Center 2012 suite, Microsoft intends to update them as a package and 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. Between major releases, System Center is frequently updated with cumulative update rollup packages.