Configuration Manager, System Center Roadmap Update

System Center Configuration Manager customers will get new versions and updates for managing Windows 10 PCs, tablets, and other client devices. The plans announced at Microsoft’s May 2015 Ignite conference mean that organizations will be able to manage the new OS with minimal upgrades to their systems management software, although customers on older versions might need other tools to deploy the OS. System Center remains the primary on-premises systems management tool, but Microsoft is rapidly integrating it with service offerings such as Intune and Azure.

System Center is a suite of formerly separate products that supports computer configuration, monitoring, virtualization, backup, software deployment and installation, and other administrative tasks. Its most widely deployed component is Configuration Manager, which provides computer configuration, software deployment, and system inventory. (See the sidebar “System Center Products“.) In addition to managing Windows client and server computers, System Center can be used with some non-Microsoft software (for example, Linux, iOS, Citrix, VMware). The current version is System Center 2012 R2, which was released in Oct. 2013 at the same time as (and with support for) Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.