Microsoft, Avanade Unveil Solutions For Management Blueprints

The software giant Tuesday unveiled with Avanade the release of Microsoft Solutions for Management, a series of prescriptive architectures that enable optimal performance of Microsoft's Systems Management Server and Microsoft Operations Manager in a data center.

The blueprints will apply to Microsoft Operations Manager, Systems Management Server 2.0 and the next version of Systems Management Server, code-named Topaz and slated to ship in September 2003, executives said.

Micrososft's Solutions for Management architectures are aimed at reducing total cost of ownership for customers and enabling quick deployment by service partners.

"In the past, technology and processes happened in isolation of each other," said Microsoft Senior Product Manager Michael Emanuel. "Now we're working on scenario-based solutions."

The new architectures "provide blueprints that are reusable by systems integrators for addressing key issues for achieving operational excellence," Emanuel said. "All of the pieces are reusable, and integrators may take top-level layers and reapply them to other [implementations."

The Microsoft Solutions for Management service is available from Microsoft Consulting Services and Avanade, Microsoft's joint venture with Accenture.

While Avanade is the first integrator authorized to offer the service, other systems integrators and solution providers can access the architectures from TechNet, Microsoft's technical resource for partners, customers and developers, at no charge, executives said.

There are a total of five best-practice blueprints for important management functions, including operational assessment, critical patch management, software updates, installation of Office XP and other Microsoft applications, and monitoring and controlling services for Windows 2000 and applications.

The solutions are based on the industry-standard IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Microsoft's implementation of ITIL, known as Microsoft Operations Framework.

Microsoft Solutions for Management for critical patch deployment, for example, enabled supply chain services vendor and early adopter CNF to create a process to quickly deploy 7,000 patches to 2,000 company workstations in less than a month using Systems Management Server, resulting in a significant reduction in cost of ownership, Microsoft said. Prior to that, the company had no process in place for patch management.

Avanade has used Microsoft Solutions for Management to complete a round of operations assessments for customers and to deploy critical software updates.

"We view the launch of of Solutions for Management as Microsoft giving us building blocks we can take to our customers and implement. It lets Avanade focus our investment internally on things higher in the solution stack," said Chris Burry, technology infrastructure fellow at Avanade. "It accelerates the time to value for customers and eliminates base investments for us."

Avanade said a freight company with 4,000 desktops is using the Microsoft Solutions for Management service, but it would not name the customer.

Microsoft also announced the availability of Microsoft Systems Architecture for the Enterprise Data Center. The prescriptive architectural guide is designed to help companies build a Microsoft-based enterprise data center with up to 50,000 desktops from scratch. Microsoft released a similar architectural blueprint for building an Internet data center earlier this year.