Microsoft Management Summit was a week or so ago in Las Vegas – we had dozens of partners put out Press Releases detailing their integrations and extensions to the System Center platform.
1E
www.1e.com
1E LOWERS THE COST ON MANAGING WINDOWS ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH AUTOMATION, REDUCED INFRASTRUCTURE AND POWER MANAGEMENT
http://www.1e.com/Downloads/Articles/PressRelease/PressReleaseMMS_ReleaseFinal.pdf
Acresso
www.acresso.com
AdminStudio Delivers First to Market Direct Conversion to Microsoft App-V Format, Dramatically Reducing Implementation Time
http://www.acresso.com/company/newscenter/pressreleases/press-releases_9958.htm
Adaptiva
www.adaptiva.com
Adaptiva Launches Green Planet to Address PC Power Management Adoption
AMD
www.amd.com
AMD Joins Microsoft® System Center Alliance
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543_15944~131122,00.html
Blue Coat
www.bluecoat.com
Blue Coat Joins Microsoft System Center Alliance and Participates in Microsoft Management Summit
http://www.bluecoat.com/news/pr/2838
BridgeWays
www.bridgeways.ca
BridgeWays Launches Broad Product Line to Extend Microsoft Systems Center Support of Cross-Platform Applications Monitoring
http://www.bridgeways.ca/bw_MMS09_PR.php
Emulex
www.emulex.com
Emulex LightPulse HBAs and CNAs Supported in New Microsoft System Center Solutions
http://www.emulex.com/resources/press-releases/2009/list/apr-28-2009-emulex-lightpulse-hbas-and-cnas-supported-in-new-microsoft-system-center-solutions.html
EView
www.eview-tech.com
EView Technology extends capabilities of Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 to include enterprise operations of the IBM OS/400 (iSeries-AS/400) server environments
F5 Networks
www.f5.com
F5 Delivers Enhanced Application Visibility and Management Capabilities for Microsoft’s Dynamic Data Center Initiative
http://www.f5.com/news-press-events/press/2009/20090428b.html
FullArmor
www.fullarmor.com
FullArmor ProvisionPortal Enables Federated Management of Microsoft Hyper-V Applications across the Cloud
FullArmor AppPortal Delivers Cloud-based Deployment and Management of App-V Virtual Applications
http://www.fullarmor.com/pr_04292009/news-press-release-detail.htm
HERMES SoftLab
www.hermes-softlab.com
HERMES SoftLab releases Management Pack for Citrix XenServer for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007
http://hermes-softlab.com/news/pr/Management_Pack_Citrix_XenServer_Oracle_Siebel_Microsoft.html
HP
www.hp.com
HP and Microsoft Join Forces to Deliver Industry-First Management Capabilities
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2009/090428c.html
Lieberman Software
www.liebsoft.com
Lieberman Software Announces Integration with Microsoft Systems
http://www.liebsoft.com/www.liebsoft.com/4.0/Pages/Press_Releases/Lieberman_Software_Announces_Integration_with_Microsoft_System_Center/
Lumension
www.lumension.com
Lumension Extends its Leading Device Control Solution to Enhance Data and Endpoint Security for Microsoft System Center Customers
http://www.lumension.com/nwr_pressReleasesDetails.jsp?id=155343&metadataId=155343
Opalis
www.opalis.com/microsoft
OPALIS DELIVERS ORCHESTRATION AND INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION FOR MICROSOFT SYSTEM CENTER
http://www.opalis.com/upload/pressreleases/OpalisMMS.pdf
Provance
www.provance.com
PROVANCE INTRODUCES TWO NEW IT ASSET MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS FOR MICROSOFT SYSTEM CENTER
http://www.provance.com/en/Company/News/20090429.html
Quest
www.quest.com
QUEST SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR THE MICROSOFT SYSTEM CENTER PLATFORM
http://www.quest.com/newsroom/news-releases-show.aspx?contentid=9542
Sanbolic
www.sanbolic.com
Sanbolic’s Clustered File System Supports Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2
http://www.sanbolic.com/pdfs/Sanbolic_Press_Release_SCVMM_2008R2.pdf
SecureVantage
www.securevantage.com
Secure Vantage Adds Unix, Linux, Cisco and Virtualization For Cost-Effective Enterprise Data Center Compliance and Auditing Solutions Using System Center
http://www.securevantage.com/News/2009_04_MMS2009.aspx
Silect
www.silect.com
Silect Software Improves IT Efficiency with New Management Solutions for Microsoft System Center Suite
http://assets.silect.com/Resources/pdfs/Silect_MMS09PR_approved.pdf
Tripwire
www.tripwire.com
TRIPWIRE UNVEILS SYSTEMS CENTER OPERATIONS MANAGEER R2-READY DATA CENTER COMPLIANCE SOLUTION AT 2009 MICROSOFT MANAGEMENT SUMMIT
http://www.tripwire.com/news/press-releases/press-release.cfm?prid=433
Verdiem
www.verdiem.com
VERDIEM ANNOUNCES PC POWER MANAGEMENT PACK FOR MICROSOFT SYSTEM CENTER CONFIGURATION MANAGER 2007
http://www.verdiem.com/news-press/press-detail.aspx?prid=42
Finally the team got the Partner Solutions Guide to print.
Here is a proof copy (right) next to the 2007 partner guide on the left.
This will be printed and shipped to Las Vegas - in time for the Microsoft Management Summit.
A big thanks to all of the System Center partners who provided their information, proofed and re-proofed their submissions. I hope you all find this guide useful – and another benefit of being in the System Center Alliance.
When I started in this role – just over a year ago – there were around 25 partners in the Microsoft System Center Alliance. Most of those were founder members of the Alliance which was announced at TechEd/IT Forum in Barcelona in November 2007.
The original members of the Alliance were a mix of the big, strategic hardware OEMs, a couple of larger ISVs with integration and then some smaller, focused ISVs who had been working with Operations Manager and Configuration Manager since the MOM and SMS days.
In the past year the System Center Strategic Partner and Alliance team have been growing in several ways.
First we added some significant additional resources last Spring – I was one of the new blood – we are focused on new partner acquisition, building a business and a technical relationship and also thinking about partnerships in non-traditional ways.
The second area of growth has been in our back-office procedures and processes – growing our capacity. Managing less than thirty partners is very doable in an Excel spreadsheet. Not so for eighty or the hundred or so that are ‘in flight’. I worked closely with my business manager on the process flow that we had, identified bottlenecks, inefficiencies – and we improved on the paper process. We added auditing, reporting and metric gathering capabilities. Most recently we moved this more efficient – but still manual – process online. We are now transitioning to a SharePoint based partner onboarding and management tool.
Finally we have used both of these investments to grow the number of partners in the Alliance.
We have gone from the twenty one founding members of the alliance to over seventy today. By the time of Microsoft Management Summit in just a few weeks we have have grown some more.
An example of this growth is in the System Center Partner Solutions Guide. When this was first created in late 2007 there were some twenty partners listed. Today I am just finishing up with the final proofing – and this edition has seventy three integrated partners listed. Such is the growth that we plan to revise this more regularly – not in 2010 – but before the WorldWide Partner Conference in July.
My next blog post will discuss some of the areas that have helped in growing the Alliance – technology, business and a critical mass of customers and partners.
There has been a lot of talk recently about ‘Green IT’ and how power management can safe significant money for an IT organisation.
Just this last week there was and article in InfoWorld reporting that $2.8B per year is spent on keeping PCs powered on.
Microsoft have a whole site of Green IT resources - http://www.microsoft.com/environment/greenit/ – and Windows Vista, Windows 2008 server have many power management features. Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 build on these.
For those running with System Center Configuration Management there are a set of Configuration Packs to enforce some of these policies.
There are also several partner solutions that take these solutions further – all are part of the System Center Alliance.
First up is 1E with NightWatchman. This solution can run either standalone or integrated with your enterprise System Center Configuration Manager collections. The 1E solution features granular controls and very detailed reporting.
The next partner solution comes from Verdiem. Surveyor is a standalone solution which provides power management and reporting of your power usage and actual savings.
Finally Adaptiva are a new name on the block – however their solution Adaptiva Companion is well known and widely deployed, being previously sold via SCCM Expert. Adaptiva Companion is a veritable toolbox for SCCM administrators – the Power Management capabilities are well integrated and provide visual reporting of actual savings.
I hope this gives a good round up of the current state of play for Power Management and reporting for Windows workstations. Microsoft have a wide range of resources available; which are rounded out by a range of choices from System Center Alliance Partners. You can gain control of your costs and carbon footprint with minimal investment.
I'm in Ottawa, ON, Canada - just about to visit with a small, really focused System Center partner Silect.
Silect have a couple of great products focused on consulting and deployment teams as well as the IT Pro tasked with creating knowledge.
Of real interest is CP Studio - which dramatically simplifies the task of building Configuration Packs for System Center Configuration Manager Desired Configuration Management.
I'm meeting with Harold Dyck - the CEO and one of the founders of Silect - I'll post more tomorrow.
Here is a partner and customer facing whitepaper describing the benefits and market differentiators for System Center Configuration Management.
Executive Summary
This document is designed to provide an overview of the benefits and market differentiators of System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 R2. This paper outlines technology enhancements and clarifies understandings of simplicity, scale, ease of use and setup. In addition, this paper addresses some common misconceptions in the market today with respect to Configuration Manager.
There is a good mention of the System Center Alliance in the doc:
In addition to the Microsoft Partner Program, System Center supports a partner marketing initiative known as the System Center Alliance.
The goal of the System Center Alliance is to create, nurture and grow a strong partner eco-system around System Center products. Our intent is that this Microsoft and partner community will deliver the best set of management solutions in the industry.
The System Center Alliance works closely with other teams at Microsoft to provide a vehicle for providing information about those solutions to our customers and our sales channels. Our partners enjoy a well-established customer base across all sizes of businesses and industries.
The System Center Alliance was launched in late 2007 with 21 founding members. Currently there are almost fifty members of the alliance providing integration to System Center technology, with program commitment to continued growth through in the future. Information on the System Center Alliance can be found here (http://www.microsoft.com/sca).
I came to the realisation that I’d not blogged about technology for weeks on my personal site - and for months here on TechNet.
The problem I’ve got is that most of the work with partners is still not released and is under NDA. That really makes for a slow blogging period.
We’re approaching Microsoft Management Summit and some of the partner work is now in beta. I’ll make sure to blog on the System Center Operations Manager R2 Cross Platform Management extensions and the partners involved in that soon.
Ying Li wrote a great article on installing SCCM on Windows Server 2008. Saved me a lot of time scrubbing my docs.
You can read the blog post here with a follow up from Don Hite on updating to SCCM R2 here.
Ok – after a long delay here is the first part of the article on installing a single server SCCM demo server.
Collect your pieces first:
Hardware
A suitable server for Windows Server 2008. I’m installing Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition on a 32 bit server with 4GB RAM.
I’d recommend a good quality server here; a laptop with 1GB isn’t going to make the grade; neither is that Pentium 3 server that’s gathering dust.
Here is a link to the Windows Server Catalog – which lists hardware solutions which are certified for Windows Server 2008.
Software
Another shopping list for the single server. You’ll need to find software (physical or download) and licenses.
Windows Server 2008
Microsoft SQL Server 2005
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP2
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2
Windows Automated Installation Kit
Here is a list of links to evaluation versions and updates:
Windows Server 2008 Test Drive: http://www.microsoft.com/heroeshappenhere/testdrive/windows-server-2008/default.mspx
Windows Server 2008 Evaluation: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Evaluation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/bb425847.aspx
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP2: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=d07219b2-1e23-49c8-8f0c-63fa18f26d3a&DisplayLang=en
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 with SP1 Evaluation: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=06D54615-8F0A-49AB-B195-5CD4FD76ABDF&displaylang=en
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 (for existing SCCM installations): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5AAE62E8-4B7F-4AF7-BE01-AEFAA4BF059A&displaylang=en
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 Evaluation: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7376214f-cba3-4e0d-81fe-ad52488be3a3&DisplayLang=en
WAIK: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c7d4bc6d-15f3-4284-9123-679830d629f2&displaylang=en
Apologies – this is taking longer than expected to get the content and videos together. Hopefully this week,
Here’s an exclusive.
A new series of partner readiness training is coming next month. Starting with a series of training webcasts and moving to a partner bootcamp across the globe – this set of training will assist development, integration and deployment partners in their work with System Center products.
I’ll post more details – including links – in the coming weeks.
I’m back in the rhythm of things after a week or so of pure ITIL v3.
Today I’ve been looking at very different processes – the back office pieces that make up the System Center Alliance.
I blogged earlier about the high level aims of the System Center Alliance – namely:
The goal of this program is simple. To create, nurture and grow a strong partner eco-system around System Center products. Our intent is that this Microsoft and partner community will deliver the best set of management solutions in the industry.
The requirements for a developer partner are very public – and hopefully have enough clarity to enable you to join and be successful. From http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/alliance-program-overview.aspx:
Requirements and Qualifications
Although this is a no-cost program, partners must meet the following membership requirements:
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Must offer a product or solution that interoperates with the then-current version(s) of the System Center family of products; within ninety (90) days of release of any new version of System Center, to maintain membership, any upgrades or updates necessary to maintain such interoperability must be released
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Must make product or solution commercially available to customers and must market it actively
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Must be a member of the Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP)
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Must have a Microsoft Non-Disclosure Agreement in place
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Must delegate full-time employee as a single point of contact for System Center Alliance activities and communications
I will drill down into the two requirements that are most important up front.
First – membership of the Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP).
If you are not already a member of the MSSP then there is a wealth of information at https://partner.microsoft.com/. There are slightly differing components of the MSPP in different areas – visit the partner portal for full details. Local developer support and training may also be available in your region.
The second requirement is more involved. Membership of the System Center Alliance requires that you have a product or solution which interoperates with System Center.
There are many different ways that this interoperability could be implemented – from native console support and an extension of System Center Configuration Manager; through providing Management Packs for System Center Operations Manager; through to providing integrated enabling technology alongside System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
My next few posts will investigate some areas of integration; and resources available to developers to deliver such integration. For those that want a sneak peek – take a look at the Software Developer Kits for System Center Operations Manager and System Center Configuration Manager.
I’ll also talk more about the back office process improvements – and how we are working to accelerate and enable development partners and integrators in the use of System Center technologies.
Written at: Redmond, WA
Oh joy.
I’ve been digging into the mapping between ITIL v3 and the new Microsoft Operations Framework v4.
There are a lot of white papers from Microsoft: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc506049.aspx
There is also a good MOF v4 overview from Rob van den Burg here.
I’ve been out of the office all week taking training.
One of my areas of specialty is ITIL – I’ve been in Brisbane, Australia taking the ITIL v3 Managers Bridge training and exam with The Art of Service. One of my future blog posts will most likely cover the mapping between ITIL and good old MOF v4.
Lots of reading and revision:
