Microsoft System Center gets cross-platform support

by Elizabeth Montalbano

April 29, 2008 —

Microsoft has released beta technologies that allow its network-management
software to manage non-Windows environments as part of the company's strategy
to make its software more conducive to managing large data centers.

Microsoft is releasing
beta technology Tuesday for products in its System Center suite that allows
the software to natively manage Linux and Unix environments as well as systems
virtualized by VMware's
ESX virtualization technology, said Larry Orecklin, general manager, of System
Center marketing. The company unveiled the news at its Microsoft
Management Summit (MMS), which is in Las Vegas this week.

Previously, Microsoft's management suite -- which has gone through several
product, name and pricing changes over the past couple of years as Microsoft
has honed its strategy -- only managed Windows environments. But Microsoft is
recognizing that to make its software a viable option for managing the data
center, it must support heterogeneous environments, and it is extending the
product for that purpose.

On Tuesday Microsoft released beta versions of software extensions for its
Windows System Center Operations Manager that allow the software to natively
manage both Linux and Unix environments in addition to Windows systems. Previously,
Microsoft allowed third parties to build software that could allow Operations
Manager to manage non-Windows environments; Tuesday marks the first time the
software can do that on its own, Orecklin said.

Microsoft leverages two community projects promoting open protocols for network
management -- Web
Services for Management and OpenPegasus -- to enable cross-platform support.
Microsoft also has joined the steering committee for the OpenPegasus
project and will contribute royalty-free code to the project, Orecklin said.

In another move to support cross-platform network management, Microsoft Tuesday
is releasing a beta of Virtual Machine Manager 2008 that adds support for VMware
ESX virtualized environments, news that
was previously reported.

Virtual Machine Manager, recently added to Microsoft's System Center product
family, manages virtual machines on a network. In a private meeting with reporters
last week on Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus, Orecklin said Microsoft
sees network management as the key business model for virtualization going forward
as the technology itself becomes commoditized.

Microsoft also Tuesday is releasing beta versions of new connectors that integrate
System Center Operations Manager with other management software, such as IBM's
Tivoli
and Hewlett-Packard's OpenView,
he said. Microsoft is releasing all of the new technologies to MMS attendees
as well as online.

IDG News Service