May 19
MMS 2010 Recap—Manage the Future: Desktop to Cloud
I attended the Microsoft Management Summit 2010 a few weeks ago. I learned quite a bit, so I decided I’d fill everyone in. Here goes….
First, the vision: Desktop to the cloud.
Microsoft’s 10 year vision is to enable management and services however, whenever, and wherever you want them through public and private clouds. The public cloud is what we see a lot of today, whereas the private cloud is up-and-coming. It can be delivered using the same technologies, whether you are the host-er or the host-ed.
Obviously managing on-premise, public cloud, and private cloud co-existence is crucial.
Just released at MMS 2010, was Microsoft’s System Center Service Manager 2010. It is not to be confused with a “help-desk.” It is a change management, workflow, reporting, and process management solution.
Service Manager integrates with other System Center products to enable a connected, end-to-end solution.
You could use it to roll out a new VDI image through System Center Virtual Machine Manager after it has met the approval criteria built in a Service Manager workflow, for example. And it’s relatively easy to install, and has features for organizations in the thousands, to hundreds of thousands.
At MMS, I also got a chance to be hands-on with System Center Configuration Manager v.Next, expected to release in H2 2011. I know it’s a ways out, but I can’t wait! SCCM is really showing maturity, and in my opinion, they have removed a lot of the administrator complexity in the product.
Software Distribution and targeting are some of the key areas I see a lot of improvement in.
Translating Microsoft’s vision further, a user needs to be able to access services from anywhere, and have a similar experience regardless of location and access. From the back-end, SCCM uses a new policy and requirements feature set to deploy applications and settings based on connectivity, host computer, etc. It then deploys apps using the traditional Windows Installer, Microsoft App-V, or by script.
And not to be left out, was my work with Application Compatibility labs. I’ve worked with Windows 7 quite a bit, but really had no idea of the tools available to make applications work with Windows 7. I plan to explore more, and will update you soon.