Two Management Products for Midsize Businesses in Beta

Hoping to address the needs of midsize businesses that lack system management specialists, Microsoft is readying two system management products. The first, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) version 3.0, is an update to Microsoft’s free tool for centrally authorizing and distributing Microsoft OS and application patches. The second, System Center Essentials (SCE), is a new fee-based management product for monitoring servers and critical workstations, patching, performing software distribution, and collecting hardware and software inventories. SCE is built on top of both WSUS 3.0 and System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007, the upcoming successor to Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005.

WSUS 3.0 Becomes Extensible

Because it is free, the current version of WSUS (version 2.0) is popular with organizations that have at least one IT professional whose duties include keeping PCs up to date with the latest Microsoft security patches and service packs. It gives an organization more control over which patches get applied and when patching takes place than they would get by configuring every PC to periodically update itself from the Microsoft Update Web site. WSUS is also less complex than Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003, the company’s flagship product for managing hardware and software assets. However, unlike SMS, WSUS 2.0 (and its precursor, Software Update Services) is not a general purpose inventory and software distribution tool and cannot be used to install applications on PCs.