Exciting System Center 2012 Features
A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Microsoft and see, first hand, some of what System Center 2012 has in store for us. For the first time, System Center components have been truly integrated, providing some unique and powerful automation capabilities.
What if Configuration Manager could automatically respond to, and remediate, an error or warning event detected by Operations Manager? What if a request for a software installation in Service Manager could be automatically carried through an approval process leading to the application being installed by Configuration Manager? What automatic virus infection remediation? Client data protection? System Center 2012 can do it all.
Still, there are a couple features that I’m really excited about, and I think warrant a little more attention.
First is Configuration Manager’s shift to a user-oriented architecture, which allows application installs to be targeted at users, not just computers. It also presents available applications based on who is searching, not which computer he or she is using. This change can really make an administrator’s life easier. We can focus on who needs access to things, rather than which device provides access (and who is in possession of that device). The new Configuration Manager bridges the gap between user and app, creating an easier administrative experience and a superior user experience.
The other feature is Operations Manager ability to monitor, natively, web apps (.NET and J2E, specifically). Operations Manager can not only inform you if your application is unavailable, it can also alert you to performance issues within the application itself. Additionally, the Operations Manager dashboard allows an administrator to delve from a physical host server, into a virtual machine, and then into web services and specific web sites and applications to identify problems within a single interface. Operations Manager can greatly simplify monitoring your systems and infrastructure and shorten time to resolution.
System Center 2012 offers many, many more capabilities as well. Hopefully, this has helped whet your appetite, as the official release is right around the corner!
Shane Skriletz, PEI
