Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

Microsoft sets ship date for Configuration Manager

August 27, 2007 12:00 PM ET

Network World - Microsoft Monday said development is complete on its System Center Configuration Manager 2007, a cornerstone in its model for managed IT systems, and that the management tool will ship in November.

For users moving from the pervious version called System Management Server the release represents an upgrade, but for those tracking Microsofts Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), a 10-year plan to build a management platform for Windows, it represents a beginning and an end.

SCCM 2007, which was released-to-manufacturing Monday, is key to the companys far-reaching DSI plan and is the first product to ship with support for the Service Modeling Language (SML), a Microsoft technology that it has submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for standardization. SML is the replacement for the System Definition Model (SDM) language, a linchpin in DSI that servers as the foundation that servers and applications use to define their optimum health and operational needs and communicate that data to the network.

Operations Manager and Visual Studio, which shipped earlier this year, both support SDM. Microsofts goal had been to use SDM, first introduced in 2003, to bring developers together with IT.

Developers will create applications that support SDM, while IT will deploy systems that can understand the language and use it to make management decisions.

But SDM is on the way out as Microsoft moves to adopt SML, a common language that the company developed in conjunction with partners such as CA, Cisco, EMC, Dell and IBM.

In March, the group turned SML, which is based on Microsofts proprietary SDM 3.0 specification, over to the World Wide Web Consortium for standardization.

SML support eventually will be a feature in every management tool under Microsofts System Center brand and in everything from Configuration Manager to Windows Server 2008 to Visual Studio.

In short, adopters of SCCM 2007 will eventually move to an SML-based environment once the specification is approved as a standard by the World Wide Web Consortium. Currently, the software supports SDM 3.0, which the SML proposal is based on.

In addition, users will need to roll out other SML technologies. Microsoft and its partners are working on something called the Common Model Library, which uses SML as the foundation for models of specific network components such as routers, storage devices, network servers and applications.

But so far the work is in its infancy, having mostly been developed within Microsoft just like SDM.

Since 2003, Microsoft has been talking on and off about DSI and the importance of SDM to the overall model.

The vision is that SDM-based models will foster better reliability, tracking, reporting, automated response/troubleshooting and rapid problem containment while making management efforts less expensive, easier and more consistent. DSI is Microsofts version of what others call autonomic computing.

Editor's note: This article originally said that Configuration Manager 2007 uses the System Definition Model language, to be replaced with the Service Modeling Language (SML) at some future point. But that was not correct; Configuration Manager 2007 is the first Microsoft product to ship out of the gate with SML. The article was corrected on August 29 around 10 a.m.


Reprinted with permission from

For more information about enterprise networking, go to NetworkWorld.com
Story copyright 2009 Network World, Inc. All rights reserved.

Jump to comments

Microsoft

Additional Resources

EFD vs. HDD - What You Need to Know
WHITE PAPER
Enterprise flash drives provide a new Tier 0 storage layer capable of delivering high I/O performance at a very low latency. Proper use of EFDs in an Oracle environment can deliver increased performance compared to fibre channel drives. Read the recommendations for identification of the best DB components for EFDs.
Gartner Research Report: Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers, 2009
WHITE PAPER
The market for products to improve the delivery of application software over networks remains dynamic and innovative. Vendors focused on solving enterprises' most-pressing application problems have become the top players.
Eight Criteria for Server Load Balancing
WHITE PAPER
Server load balancers are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application environment while ensuring its availability. Today's solutions should also address application performance and security. Read about the top eight criteria you should consider when choosing a server load balancer and how Citrix NetScaler meets those requirements.

What People Are Saying

White Papers & Webcasts

The Workday User Experience Video
Watch Workday's Creative Director, Scott Lietzke, discuss the business-centered design philosophy at Workday.

Business Process Framework Demo
Learn about Configurable Business Processes and Calculated Fields. Watch Now!

Manager Experience Demo
Go beyond self-service solutions to perform more effectively. Watch Now.


IT Jobs