Microsoft focuses on private cloud with new management wares coming in 2011
Microsoft is playing up its private-cloud deliverables with several new management tools that the Redmondians are planning to roll out later this calendar year.
Microsoft is showcasing early versions of some of these tools on March 22 at the Microsoft Management Summit conference in Las Vegas.
Last year, there was a lot of focus by Microsoft on public-cloud solutions built around its Windows Azure cloud operating system. This year, there will likely be more of a focus by Microsoft on hybrid solutions -- with Microsoft counting on private cloud as a way to get possibly cloud-shy customers to put at least some of their data "in the cloud."
As expected, one of the coming deliverables is a management portal, codenamed Concero, that will allow administrators to manage both their private and public cloud infrastructure. Concero is the successor to the current System Center Virtual Machine Manager R2 Self Service Portal 2.0.
When I first unearthed some clues about Concero a couple of months ago, the offering was described as a management console that would support Windows Azure Appliances, Microsoft's "private cloud in a box" offering that still has yet to materialize (in spite of expectations that the first Azure Appliances would become available in late 2010/early 2011). Microsoft execs told me that the company would have more to share about the Azure Appliances at the TechEd conference in mid-May.
Microsoft also is going to make available a beta of its System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2012 product on March 22. The final version of that private-cloud building block will be available before the end of this year, Microsoft execs said. (Thanks for the download link, @UltraWindows.)
But wait... there's more coming on the private-cloud-management front in 2011. System Cener Operations Manager 2012, which will integrate AviCode management technology (from Microsoft's AviCode acquisition last year) is coming this year, as are new versions of System Center Orchestrator (the renamed Opalis management product); System Center Advisor (a configuration-monitoring product codenamed Atlanta); System Center Service Manager; and System Center Data Protection Manager 2012.
On the enterprise security side, Microsoft execs said that Forefront Endpoint Protection Manager 2012 will be released in the same timeframe as System Center Configuration Manager 2012, and as is the case now, will be built on System Center Configuration Manager.