Microsoft Ships Beta Of Software Update Services 2.0, Slips MOM 2005

When Microsoft introduced what it then called Microsoft Operations Manager 2004, it said the software would ship mid-2004. The company now slates shipment for the second half of the year. Eric Berg, group product manager of the Windows Server Division, told CRN that, despite the product's renaming, it has not been delayed. He said the 2005 designation for both MOM and new Systems Center management suite reflects fiscal year product releases. Microsoft's 2005 fiscal year begins July 1.

While the timing of the operations manager will likely annoy some corporate customers, the release of the beta version of the renamed Windows update services (formerly SUS 2.0) is of greater significance, integrators and analysts say. But even that looks to be pushed back. In a separate Webcast, Mike Nash, corporate vice president of the Redmond, Wash., company's Security Business and Technology Unit, said SUS 2.0 will now appear in the second half of 2004. Even so, customers can begin using the beta patch management software to help deploy critical updates.

"Large companies have solved the patch management problem with a lot of money [spent on third-party offerings], but not everybody has," said Patrick Hynds, CTO of CriticalSites, a developer and systems integrator for Microsoft and IBM in Nashua, N.H., who noted that security is a higher priority than management software. "With server consolidation, management has taken a back seat for a while. I am seeing some resurgence."

On the upside, Microsoft said it plans to make available new, affordably priced MOM 2005 Express software for SMB customers that need simple monitoring for their Windows Server environments. This is the first SMB version of MOM or any management product.

Berg said the Express version of MOM 2005--released into its first round of beta testing on Tuesday--will carry a lower price than MOM 2005 and will be licensed to limit the number of Windows servers that can be managed. He declined to offer additional details.

Microsoft did provide a rough update and a name for its ambitious management server suite, aptly dubbed System Center 2005. A core piece of the company's Dynamic Systems Initiative, System Center moved into beta testing on Tuesday. The suite will integrate Systems Management Server 2003, MOM 2004 and a common reporting system, and will enable IT departments to configure and fine-tune the performance of entire Windows environments. Systems Center is on track to ship during the second half of 2004, Berg said.

One analyst posited that Systems Center will likely be pushed back due to integration complexity -- and the fact that Microsoft's next-generation MOM is still not ready.

"Microsoft is still trying with System Center," said Michael Cherry, an analyst for Directions on Microsoft, a newsletter in Kirkland, Wash. "They're taking SMS, MOM and ADS and trying to wrap them into a single package, [but] they're all separate products. It's all very hazy."

Microsoft also plans to release by year's end Systems Management Server 2003 feature packs for operating system deployment and device management. The OS deployment feature pack will allow SMS to do basic provisioning of Windows desktops. The device management feature pack will allow SMS to manage Windows devices running CE, mobile software for running Pocket PCs and smart phones, the company said.