Systems Management, Security, and Identity Management

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

The entire System Center line was updated in Oct. 2013 with the release of System Center 2012 R2. Most System Center products are not available separately but only as components of two System Center licensing bundles: System Center 2012 R2 Standard and System Center 2012 R2 Datacenter, each containing licenses for eight System Center 2012 R2 products. (See the sidebar “System Center Product Names“.) The R2 version allows the products to be used with Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, 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. The Dec. 2013 release of the Desktop Optimization Pack 2013 R2 added support for Windows 8.1 and for virtualizing Office 2013. Updates to Windows Intune, Microsoft’s online PC management service, were released in Oct. 2013 with support for Windows 8.1, and in Feb. 2014 with improved management features for mobile devices.

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