Executive Summary

System Center 2016 updates all System Center products and contains many improvements for managing software-defined data centers running on Windows Server 2016. The System Center line of products provides a wide variety of management tools for Windows and other computers. Some products deploy and update software, monitor systems, and manage virtual environments, while others provide backup and restore, help desk management, and process automation. Using commodity hardware and Microsoft virtualization, storage, and networking to deliver high availability and automation, System Center 2016 takes advantage of several Windows Server 2016 features, particularly for configuration management and virtualization. The release also signals retirement of some existing features, and a new per-core licensing model might cause some customers to reevaluate using the suite. Increasingly, Microsoft is emphasizing its online services, and System Center is evolving to use those services in conjunction with on-premises products.