Updated: July 9, 2020 (August 13, 2007)

  Analyst Report

System Center Essentials Supports Midmarket

My Atlas / Analyst Reports

2,300 wordsTime to read: 12 min
Rob Helm by
Rob Helm

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

Systems management for small and midsize businesses is the focus of System Center Essentials 2007, a software distribution and system-health monitoring product based on Operations Manager and Windows Server Update Services. Released in May 2007, System Center Essentials could be useful for partners whose customers have outgrown ad hoc software updating and monitoring but are not big enough (or willing to pay enough) to move to Microsoft’s enterprise management product line. However, Essentials is still a complex product for a complex task, and customers who outgrow it could find migration to higher-end systems management products to be a chore.

Software Distribution and Monitoring for Smaller Organizations

System Center Essentials is a server product that provides the following:

  • Software patching, application installation, and software inventory based on a substantially extended Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 code base
  • Health monitoring based on Operations Manager 2007

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