Microsoft's Future System Center Products Takes Shape

Published: May 3, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Even Microsoft's own project managers were stumbling over the new product names given to the beloved MOM and SMS products last week at the Microsoft Management Summit 2006 (MMS 06) conference in San Diego. But that didn't do much to quell conference-goers' obvious interest in Microsoft's burgeoning line of systems management software, its plans to rebuild it from the ground up on a common infrastructure, and its desire to take market share from the likes of BMC Software, CA, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM.

There are many aspects to the struggle to improve the management of a growing number of X86 and X64 servers in customers' data centers. Some vendors, including parts of IBM, advocate bundling Windows and Linux servers under the common umbrella of a bigger server, like its iSeries line, to improve some aspects of maintenance and manageability. Others are looking to virtualization software, such as EMC's VMware subsidiary's GSX Server and ESX Server and Microsoft's Virtual Server products to let users bring dozens of Windows or Linux images inside of much larger SMP X86 boxes to drive up server utilization, drive down the cost of managing those servers, and beat the server sprawl problem.

Microsoft would prefer customers take the latter approach, and is exploring how it can use virtualization technologies with the next generation of its System Center Suite, which is the focus of the "Carmine" project that server chief Bob Muglia talked about at MMS06 last week. Microsoft is expected to release more details on Carmine at the WinHEC conference later this month, but the MMS06 show did provide a good idea where Microsoft plans on taking its System Center Suite.

To recap, we already heard about how Microsoft is replacing the Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) and Systems Management Server (SMS) names with System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Configuration Manager 2007, respectively. Similarly, we have heard about the new service desk offering (which will likely be called System Center Service Desk) and how the MONAD scripting shell will be called Windows PowerShell (see "Microsoft Unveils New System Center Tools, Stirs the Alphabet Soup").

Microsoft program managers at the MMS06 show discussed how future releases of the two core elements of System Center Suite, including MOM (make that System Center Operations Manager 2007) and SMS (we meant System Center Configuration Manager 2007) will be recast on the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), a version of SQL Server that will be delivered as part of the upcoming Service Desk offering.

The goal with Service Desk is to capture knowledge about a particular organization's use of Windows applications and how they're connected, and then recommend ways to fix them when they break. The application will gather this data according to ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) standards, store it in the CMDB, and then use workflow components (borrowed from Sharepoint Portal) to help deal with, or even prevent, crises in IT.

Even the smallest, most innocuous changes can wreak havoc on servers, says Ken Van Hyning, group program manager of the Windows and enterprise management division at Microsoft, in his session on Service Desk. "Change is usually the number one destructive thing that's done" at IT shops, he says. "Just increasing a queue size, three things that are tied to it, and pretty soon, that whole server is coming down."

Instead of managing IT on a wing and a prayer, Service Desk will standardize the process, while eliminating menial tasks. For example, managers will be encouraged to consult the Service Desk for answers to questions such as "What is the maintenance window for applying patches to our Exchange Servers?" With SMS and MOM today, it's not easy to answer that question.

"We were missing that one key element to coordinate between MOM and SMS," says Van Hyning, no doubt meaning System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Configuration Manager 2007. Service Desk will also serve as a "critical hub" connecting application developers with computer operators, he says.

Microsoft has already issued a private technology preview of Service Desk, and hopes to have the first beta out by the second half of this year. The second beta is tentatively slated for the first half of 2007, with release to manufacturing occurring in the second half of 2007, according to Van Hyning.

Some of the new virtualization tricks that will be possible in future versions of System Center were also demonstrated at MMS06. In particular, Microsoft seems especially keen on Softricity and its capability for streamlining the deployment of virtual applications via System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (better known as SMS).

Softricity's SoftGrid software lets applications be "streamed" down to the desktop, where they run in a virtual environment. Running desktop or applications virtually from a centralized server has several benefits, but the biggest one is the avoidance of "DLL Hell" that commonly befalls complex desktop environments. In this way, shops don't have to perform as much regression testing to make sure new products, or new releases of existing products, don't cause conflicts with other applications. Softricity unveiled its software last fall (see "Softricity Streamlines Access to Desktop Apps with ZeroTouch").

Microsoft also last week announced the acquisition of Assetmetrix, a Canadian developer of software that helps users monitor their software licenses. Assetmetrix will be incorporated into a future release of Configuration Manager 2007, according to Microsoft.

In addition to keeping all licensing information in a centralized store, it will also cut down on unauthorized use of software, say Microsoft managers, ever concerned about the piracy problem. In other words, it helps them to "use what they buy, and buy what they use."