New System Center Webcasts for June

Thanks to Eileen for this info.

TechNet Webcast: System Center Operations Manager 2007 Technical Overview (Level 200)
Monday, June 11, 2007 – 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Chris Avis, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032340807&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Client Monitoring with System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Level 200)
Monday, June 18, 2007 – 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Blain Barton, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341227&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: What’s New in Systems Management Server 2003 SP3 (Level 200)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 – 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Pacific Time
Wally Mead, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341247&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: System Center Operations Manager 2007 Installation and Management Pack Migration (Level 200)
Friday, June 22, 2007 – 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Pacific Time
Bryan Von Axelson, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341253&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Introduction to System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (Level 200)
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 – 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Pacific Time
Wally Mead, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341255&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Windows PowerShell: The Future of Server Administration (Level 300)
Tuesday, June 05, 2007 – 10:00 AM – 11:15 AM Pacific Time
Don Jones, Scripting Guru and Author, SAPIEN Technology
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90647

TechNet Webcast: Under-the-Hood Extensions in Windows PowerShell (Level 200)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 – 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Don Jones, Scripting Guru and Author, SAPIEN Technology
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032321876&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance

Just announced today is the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance which will be available in January 2007 and contains 4 tools.

• Microsoft SoftGrid
• Microsoft Asset Inventory Services (looks like AssetMetrix as it is hosted)
• Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (change management of GPOs and role-based delegation)
• Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset (from Winternals purchase)

This will be available as an add-on subscription for Software Assurance customers. Customers with Open Value, Select, Enterprise Agreement (EA), EA Subscription and Campus and School agreements can subscribe through volume licensing, for an estimated retail price of US$10 a year per desktop. $10 – what a bargain!

This is interesting as the announcement is from the Windows Client Product Marketing Group and not the Windows and Enterprise Management Division. Which explains no mention of System Center in the products.

Although the press release states that these tools can be used in conjunction with SMS it does seem that there is some overlap. If you have an EA you already own the CALs for SMS and just need to buy the Primary Servers (Secondary SMS Servers are free). That aside it is a great price to get hold of SoftGrid. When you look at the advantages that it gives – no more complex testing matrix of applications to see if they are suitable for an upgrade – combined with the OS Deployment Feature Pack for SMS along with the Business Desktop Deployment Solution Accelerator then it is going to be hard not to upgrade to Vista and Office 2007 if you have an EA.

Press release – http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/oct06/10-17Desktop.mspx

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/optimizeddesktop.mspx
Initial marketing page but links at bottom to 4 PDFs for more detail on each of the components.
 

Microsoft Softricity

As Microsoft has now purchased Softricity (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jul06/07-17SoftricityPR.mspx) I thought I should take a look at it. If it works as well as they show on the web and on their demos then I wonder why all companies would not want to use virtualised application deployment rather than deploying apps the traditional way or using Terminal Server farms (although Softricity can work on those and help with apps that can not normally run on TS).  It creates a sandbox called SystemGuard Environment that the virtualised application runs in so it can not write to registry or other files but can read them and allows the application to cut and paste as if it were installed locally. It reminds me of the Java Virtual Machine but any Windows application can be run through the sequencer program. This can be delivered from a server and they say that only 20% to 40% of the app needs to be downloaded for it to work. It is then cached so that the user can run it next time. Which is great for laptops which has always been Terminal Servers Achilles heel. Well until 3G is cheap and pervasive. The advantages are

• No application testing for conflicts as the application is sandboxed
• Can create a simple single OS image for deployment and stream apps afterwards
• Reduced application conflicts so reduced helpdesk calls
• Improved security as application sandboxed
• Centralise control and reporting
• Smaller amount of data to transmit to get app working
• Can be cached for laptop users
• Multiple versions of applications that clash can be run

There is integration with SMS. http://www.softricity.com/products/softgrid-sms.asp So you can push the virtualised application to an SMS client in the same way that you would a normal application or just the code needed to get the application running and the client will pull down code as it needs it. 

Good collateral at http://www.softricity.com/products/howitworks.asp on how it works and the PDF at http://www.softricity.com/news/ecollateral/public/The-Softricity-Desktop.pdf gives a good overview of the product, how it works and its advantages.  The only thing I am not sure of is how it is to be licensed. Will Microsoft give it as part of SMS, which would be a good deal for SMS customers, or will they continue to sell it as a separate product? And if so for how much? In any case it looks like an amazing technology that Microsoft has bought. 

Now Microsoft has virtualisation technologies for the OS with Virtual Server and Virtual PC and for applications with Softricity.