Microsoft preps System Center for the cloud

IDG News Service - Microsoft is updating the next version of its System Center IT infrastructure and server management suite so it can manage virtual machines in the cloud. It is also adding controls that will allow departmental IT chiefs to manage their own system resources, the company announced Tuesday.

Both additions to System Center 2012 suite, scheduled for release later this year, are necessary to help central IT departments keep pace with the requests of individual departments within their organizations.

"If [central IT] does not move fast enough, departmental level [IT staff] are not above going around them and [will] procure space on a site like Windows Azure if they want to deploy something more quickly," said Amy Barzdukas, a general manager in Microsoft's Server and Tools Business.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 allows administrators to deploy virtual machines either on local servers or on Microsoft Azure-based hosted platforms. The administrator can pool virtual machines into different sets, allowing them to establish sets of servers dedicated for specific tasks or lines of business.

The program works with virtual machines using the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors and with those based on VMware and Xen hypervisors.

"You create a set of virtual machines with standard packages that have the app and the networking [settings], and put those out to the business-level owners," Barzdukas said. Microsoft has posted a beta version of Virtual Machine Manager that can be tested on a trial basis.

The release is timely. Cloud management has gone beyond the task of merely creating a virtual machine and deploying it on a cloud infrastructure, said Gartner Research Vice President Chris Wolf, in a statement. The organization will also need tools to automate configuration and operations as well.

Of the 7.5 million servers with Windows Server software that Microsoft expects to be shipped in 2012, around 1.5 million will be used in "highly virtualized" environments, Barzdukas said.

Also new for Systems Center 2012 will be a program that allows for greater control over departmental allocations of resources. Code-named "Concero," this application will allow an administrator to designate a set of servers or other resources to a departmental manager, giving that manager fine-grained control of how those resources can be used.

"Think of Concero as an administrative console that's been made available to department-level IT. It gives app owners the opportunity to manage their own resources that has been delegated to them by central IT," she said. "They will have a role-specific experience based on what their business unit needs, which allows them to do all the management themselves."

Microsoft announced these two new components of System Center at the Microsoft Management Summit, being held this week in Las Vegas.