Microsoft Plans System Center Service Desk, Virtual Manager

At the software giant's annual management summit in San Diego, Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Server and Tools Business, announced as expected that the System Center Configuration Manager 2007, formerly Systems Management Server v4, and System Center Operations Manager 2007, formerly Microsoft Operations Manager, would ship next year.

Microsoft also announced Tuesday that it would ship two new members of the System Center family: the System Center Service Desk and yet-to-be-identified virtualization manager code-named "Carmine."

The System Center Service Desk is a "new member of the System Center family and a product that pulls [management] all together," Muglia said, noting the platform will offer Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)-based workflows and change control logic to enable IT administrators, business managers and end users to collaborate on processes that combine various System Center components.

The Service Desk, for example, will use the Windows Workflow Foundation in Windows Vista and server and will integrate knowledge and process-based logic from a simple, unified console IT administrators and partners can use.

For example, the centralized service desk will also be able to project information to end users, giving them status info, better support, thus generating fewer help desk calls.

That's not all. Microsoft confirmed that it is working on another member of the System Center family -- a virtualization manager code-named "Carmine" -- but would not provide additional details.

"You need to manage that virtualized environment and we talked about building those tools last year," Muglia said, noting that Microsoft plans to release its own virtualization hypervisor soon after the Longhorn server ships. "Carmine is the name for the set of tools for managing virtual machine images and we'll talk more about it in the next few months."

Muglia also said Microsoft is making investments in application virtualization and potentially virtualizing core system services further down the road. "We're looking at how we can do system service level virtualization, to run hundreds of different sessions for different users with different sets of credentials," Muglia said.

"You need to manage that virtualized environment and we talked about building those tools last year," Muglia said, noting that Microsoft plans to release its own virtualization hypervisor soon after the Longhorn server ships. "Carmine is the name for the set of tools for managing virtual machine images and we'll talk more about it in the next few months."

Microsoft also unveiled its newly named Windows PowerShell object-oriented Unix-like command shell and scripting language, formerly code named "Monad." The PowerShell will be available as a Web download later this year and integrated into a version of Windows in the next two to four years, Microsoft said. Exchange 2007 and System Center Operations Manager 2007 will be built on PowerShell, Microsoft said.

The software giant also announced that it would release a desktop version of its Systems Center Operations Manager in the future as well as the much anticipated Systems Center Essentials suite for mid-sized businesses also in 2007.

Systems Center Essentials, which is aimed at the channel, will move into beta later this year and will ship in the first half of 2007, Microsoft said.

That rebranded, and more integrated System Center management software lineup will give solution providers and integrators in the enterprise and SMB space significant revenue opportunities as customers look to reduce the costs of desktop management and improve security, Microsoft said

Microsoft is expecting that the System Center family will help control those spiraling costs, though observers note that the company won't ship any of those products -- except Windows PowerShell -- until 2007.

"Windows has gone from being a laggard in management to a leader," Muglia said. "System Center is at the center, and Windows is key, but the learning we share together as people that drives us forward."