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SMB & Mid-Market Administrators Rejoice! MS System Center Essentials getting closer to RTM

In my travels as a consultant I get to see a lot of SMB and mid-market environments where administrators just don't have a handle on what's going on in their environment. There's no sense of configuration control and absolutely no knowledge of systems performance.

This happens mainly because most of the tools to automate this are designed for the enterprise customer in mind. They don't necessarily scale well to the small and medium businesses in terms of price. So in a lot of cases the smaller customers remain ignorant about systems management.

But, SMB and mid-market administrators rejoice! Microsoft's System Center Essentials hit RC1 last Thursday. This combination of SCOM 2007 (formerly MOM), WSUS, and some other componentry like inventorying and patch/application deployment brings enterprise-level systems management capabilities to the smaller shops.

In my opinion, every single IT shop should incorporate some sense of systems management and configuration control. If you don't, you're not properly doing your job.

That being said, sometimes the tools just aren't there at the right price. I suspect that this new product from Microsoft will help.

From the SCE WIKI site:

SCE 2007 includes Operations Manager 2007 (formerly known as MOM), and Windows Server Update Services. These are the core technologies in place to support all of our client and server monitoring, as well as software distribution, patch management, and inventory collection.

Download it and see how it fits in your network. Drop a comment in the comments to let us know what you think...

Announcement: http://entmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=8252
SCE WIKI: http://sce.editme.com/

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Greg Shields' Bio:

Greg Shields is a Principal Consultant with 3t Systems in Denver, Colorado. With more than 10 years of experience in information technology, Greg has developed extensive experience in systems administration, engineering, and architecture specializing in Microsoft, Citrix, and VMware technologies. Greg is a Contributing Editor for both Redmond Magazine and Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine, authoring two regular columns along with numerous feature articles, webcasts, and white papers. He is known for his abilities to relate highly technical concepts with a drive towards fulfilling business needs. Greg is also a highly sought-after instructor and speaker, teaching system and network troubleshooting curriculum for TechMentor Events, a twice-annual IT conference, and producing computer-based training curriculum for CBT Nuggets on numerous topics. Greg is a triple Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) with security specialization and a Certified Citrix Enterprise Administrator (CCEA).