Microsoft's Revamped System Center Focuses on Managing the Cloud
On Tuesday, Microsoft unveiled the latest version of System Center, which promises to make it easier to manage virtual and cloud environments. Here, Microsoft officials, industry analysts and customers talk about how the new version lets you better manage both private cloud and public cloud services as well virtualization platforms from multiple vendors.
Thu, January 19, 2012
CIO — Microsoft's new version of System Center 2012 totally revamps the product, with the goal of making it easier to use, more powerful and an enticing value proposition for organizations looking for a unified way to manage their virtual and cloud environments.
In addition to unifying the disparate tools found in previous versions of System Center, the new release candidate, System Center 2012, provides a way to manage private-public clouds, or hybrid clouds, from a single control panel and is designed to integrate better with third-party hardware and software.
"Instead of eight discrete pieces, you now buy one product so it's very simple to deploy and easier to purchase," explained Amy Barzdukas, general manager for server and tools marketing at Microsoft.
At the core of System Center 2012's design is the cloud, according to Andrew Conway, director of product management for Microsoft's System Center Business Group. Not only will the new System Center allow customers to manage clouds on their premises, but on public clouds, as well.
"We believe that customers will be in this realm of hybrid clouds for awhile," Conway said, "so we have components in System Center that will let customers manage not just across assets and infrastructure they've deployed in their own data center but also on the public path, through something like Windows Azure."
Most organizations will be running multiple clouds—clouds running in their data centers, in partner data centers, in Microsoft data centers—and they want one consistent, holistic way to look at that and manage their applications and services across those clouds, Brad Anderson, corporate vice president for Microsoft's management and security division explained in a webcast Tuesday announcing the System Center roll out.
"With System Center you have one place to look at your private cloud and public cloud," he observed. "But not only that, you can look at different virtualization infrastructures—whether it be from Microsoft or VMware or from Xen Server—in one consistent view through System Center 2012."
Playing Nice With VMware and Others
That capability to manage disparate technologies through System Center is an expanded feature in System Center 2012 and one that surprised long-time Microsoft user Chris Steffen, principal technical architect with Kroll Factual Data in Loveland, Colo.
"I think it's a new approach by Microsoft," he said. "I think they've swallowed the hard pill and are acknowledging that they're not the only solution out there for virtualization and management tools. They've decided to make an effort to play nicely with others."
