System Center Tour – Microsoft TechEd IT Forum 2007

Finishing up the interview series at Microsoft TechEd IT Forum in Barcelona, I talk with Eric Berg (Director of Product Management, System Center) about the System Center product lines. While we focus on only Operations Manager, Configuration Manager, and Virtual Machine Manager, we go into detail on each. We start out going over the linage of the System Center brand: mapping MOM to System Center Operations Manager and SMS to System Center Configuration Manager. Then Eric describes what function both Operations Manager and Configuration Manager serve, spending time detailing the inventory and asset management that Configuration Manager does, highlighting the AssetMetrix integration. We then talk about what System Center offers for virtualization management and discuss everyone’s favorite virtualization topic, live migration of VMs. We end by talking about how Microsoft uses partners and the greater System Center ecosystem to address questions about heterogeneity, and then end on discussing what role developers play in Microsoft’s general “philosophy of IT management.”