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A couple of weeks back (seems like ages now, but I’ve been moving house so I have an excuse!!) I blogged about Service Manager, and how it could be the next big thing in automating IT processes, workflows, and more, within an IT environment.  At the time, All I provided was a video and a link to an online virtual lab.

Now however, you can start to get your hands dirty with it, as the public beta 2 is available for download.  Firstly however, let’s expand on what Service Manager actually is.  I’m going to take this directly from the Microsoft site:

Microsoft System Center Service Manager is an integrated platform for automating and adapting your organization’s IT service management best practices, such as those found in Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). It provides built-in processes for incident and problem resolution, change control, and asset lifecycle management. Through its configuration management database (CMDB) and process integration, Service Manager automatically connects knowledge and information from System Center Operations Manager, System Center Configuration Manager and Active Directory. Service Manager delivers integration, efficiency, and business alignment of the datacenter IT services by:

  • Optimizing processes and ensuring their use through templates that effectively guide IT analysts through best practices for change and incident management.

  • Reducing resolution times by cutting across organizational silos, ensuring that the right information from incident, problem, change, or asset records is accessible through a single pane.

  • Extending the value of the Microsoft platform through automated generation of incidents from alerts and the coordination of activities among System Center products.

  • Enabling informed and cost-effective decision making through its data warehouse, which integrates knowledge from disparate IT management systems, delivering out-of-the-box reporting and flexible data analysis through SQL reporting services.

Resources:

So, where can you get it?

Right Here.  Make sure you check out the Service Manager 2010 Beta 2 System Requirements – they’re quite hefty – you’ve been warned!