Microsoft changes System Center plans

Microsoft has reversed plans to deliver a bundle of systems management products under the System Center name and instead will use that name as an overarching brand for its systems management products, the software maker plans to announce next week.

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System Center, announced two years ago, was originally introduced as a bundle of Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 and SMS (Systems Management Server) 2003 with a common interface and added reporting services. Microsoft has now dropped those plans, opting instead to deliver reporting capability in a tool called System Center Reporting Manager, which is currently in beta testing. MOM and SMS will remain stand-alone products.

The System Center name, meanwhile, will now be used as an overarching brand name.

"They have taken the System Center name and hijacked it for use as a brand for all their management products," said Peter Pawlak, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft. "They are trying to promote it a la Unicenter or Tivoli," Pawlak said, referring to rival brands from Computer Associates and IBM, respectively.

Microsoft plans to officially announce its new System Center branding strategy at its fourth annual Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas next week. The Redmond, Washington-based software maker declined comment ahead of the event.

However, on its Web site Microsoft already says that System Center is the brand name for its systems management products. "System Center is a family of products, but there will be no bundling of existing offerings," according to the Microsoft Web site.

The products that fall under the System Center umbrella are SMS 2003, MOM 2005, MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition, Data Protection Manager 2006 and Reporting Manager 2005, according to the Web site.

Earlier this week Microsoft released a beta of System Center Data Protection Manager, a diskless back-up and recovery server that previously was called Data Protection Server. During a March Web cast, the company detailed System Center Reporting Manager, a tool that collects data from SMS and MOM 2005 for reporting purposes.

Systems management software is one of Microsoft's fastest growing businesses. The products also form a key part of the software maker's Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), an ambitious 10-year plan to simplify management of software and hardware. Microsoft will provide more information on its now two-year-old DSI strategy next week.

At the Las Vegas event, the company is also expected to provide an update on its road map for systems management products.

Directions on Microsoft's Pawlak and David Friedlander, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., expect the software maker to start talking to customers about a new version of SMS. The current version, SMS 2003, was shipped in late 2003.

According to the event agenda, Microsoft also will let attendees test drive a new capacity planning tool called Indy, which it first demonstrated at last year's Microsoft Management Summit. Indy (the product's code name) will let users plan new Exchange Server 2003 deployments.

Another returning topic at the event is Windows Server Update Services. The patch management tool, an update to the current Software Update Services 1.0, has been delayed several times and has had two different names: Windows Update Services and Software Update Services 2.0. The product, which Microsoft will make available at no cost, is currently scheduled for final release in the first half of 2005.

Although the Management Summit focuses mainly on Microsoft products, some other vendors get room to show off their wares. Several vendors will be making announcements at the event:

- FullArmor plans to announce the availability of its IntelliPolicy Connector, which connects FullArmor IntelliPolicy for Clients to NetIQ's Group Policy Administrator v4.6. In addition, NetIQ will market and resell FullArmor IntelliPolicy for Clients as part its Group Policy Suite.

- Tidal Software plans to announce the release of Horizon for SAP version 1.5 with support for Microsoft's MOM 2005. The product analyzes and identifies SAP transactions that impact system performance.

- Special Operations Software plans to announce a new group policy-based software deployment product.