Systems Management, Security, and Identity Management

The current wave of releases for the entire System Center line became available in Dec. 2012, with the release of System Center 2012 SP1, and one new product was added. Most System Center 2012 products are not available separately but only as components of two System Center licensing bundles: System Center 2012 Standard and System Center 2012 Datacenter, each containing licenses for eight System Center 2012 products. (See the sidebar “System Center Product Names“.) The service pack allows the products to be used with Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 among other improvements.

For client management, the Desktop Optimization Pack 2013, released in Apr. 2013, has major improvements to the BitLocker Administration and Monitoring tool and minor updates to other components. Updates to Windows Intune, Microsoft’s online PC management product, were released in June 2012 and Dec. 2012.

The Forefront line of security products protects Windows PCs, servers, and the network edge from viruses, spyware, and other malware. Many Forefront products were discontinued in 2012, while Endpoint Protection 2012, released in Apr. 2012 and updated to Service Pack 1 in Dec. 2012, drops the Forefront branding and joins System Center.