SMS 2003 News and Reviews

Internetnews.com (June 14, 2005): By mid-July, the company plans to release two other updating tools: Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft updates, which integrates with the WSUS scanning engine and MU to provide enterprise customers with a new security update scan tool for enterprise patch management.

eWeek (June 13, 2005): David Robert, a systems manager for a global consulting and engineering company in Cambridge, Mass., welcomes a greater focus on the internal health of a system. Microsoft's Bob Muglia says, "Systems Management Server (SMS) will manage the images for virtualization, [and] MOM will manage the monitoring, but some things are missing, like dynamically moving things, and that might be a separate product we might want to build as part of System Center."

InformationWeek (June 9, 2005): At Microsoft's TechEd 2005 conference, Ballmer announced four key pieces of Microsoft's new-and-improved patch-management platform, including Windows Server Update Services and an inventory tool for Systems Management Server.

Windows IT Pro (June 7, 2005): Microsoft shipped Windows Software Update Services (WSUS), the long-awaited upgrade to Software Update Services (SUS) that provides small and medium businesses with free software patching functionality. Based on the company's new Microsoft Update backend, WSUS will be joined in July by two related tools, Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) 2.0 and Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Inventory Tool.

IDG News Service (June 6, 2005): Microsoft made available on Monday the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) patching tool and Microsoft Update software patching service. Shipping in mid-July will be two other software update tools currently in beta: Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.0 and Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft.

Microsoft Watch (June 6, 2005): At Tech Ed Microsoft announced immediate availability of not only Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) patching technology, but also of the Windows Update successor, known as Microsoft Update. Microsoft also plans to update its Systems Management Server 2003 Inventory tool for users who prefer to do their patching via SMS.

Network World (May 30, 2005): Microsoft's engineering effort underlies the Windows Server System, which was born as a marketing term, but now could potentially become something quite different. The servers are grouped in three categories: Operations, which includes Identity Integration Server and System Management Server (SMS); Applications, which includes SQL Server and BizTalk; and Information Work, which includes Exchange and SharePoint Portal Server. Microsoft has just started to release servers developed under the CEC. The first three are Virtual Server 2005, Live Communications Server 2005 and MOM 2005.

(May 23, 2005: Directions) Although details about the Dynamic Systems Initiative are still hazy, 2005 brings many new or updated management products and technologies to Microsoft's arsenal.

Windows IT Pro (April 26, 2005): In mid-2005, Microsoft will ship the long-awaited Microsoft Update, which will replace Windows Update as the company's manual product update service. Along with new versions of Automatic Updates, the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA), Systems Management Server (SMS), and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), Microsoft Update constitutes Microsoft's revised patch management strategy.

Network World Fusion (April 25, 2005): Microsoft last week showed it is starting to stitch together the first pieces of its ambitious plan to build a management platform, but a Windows-based utility computing environment is still years down the road.

InfoWorld (April 25, 2005): Microsoft's plan for the future of systems management, called Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), came into focus last week when the software maker laid out a roadmap for new and updated management products.

eWeek (April 21, 2005): Officials highlighted the concrete steps that have been taken to make the DSI vision a reality, and outlined the next milestones Microsoft intends to reach in a detailed roadmap.

eWeek (April 21, 2005): After long shunning the multivendor management needs of heterogeneous computing, Microsoft announced its first initial management interoperability steps.

InfoWorld (April 20, 2005): Microsoft wants to help enterprises manage their entire IT environments, not just Windows systems, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Steve Ballmer told attendees at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas.

eWeek (April 20, 2005): Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dropped the pretense Tuesday around the company's platform-management intentions: He said the company aims to help IT "manage your environment to do more with less, get better operational insight and better meet service-level agreements."

internetnews.com (April 20, 2005): Microsoft has its sights set on the next generation of management software as it seeks to be a leader in applications that care for computer systems.

REDMOND Magazine (April 20, 2005): Dell this week began offering MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition on its PowerEdge servers.

Computerworld (April 20, 2005): Microsoft scrapped those plans and is now using System Center as a "family name" for a set of management products -- including three new ones due out in the second half of the year, Kirill Tatarinov told Computerworld.

eWeek (April 19, 2005, 2005): Microsoft laid out an aggressive road map for the next two years to take its Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) forward, including new versions of MOM and SMS.

Infoworld (April 11, 2005): Microsoft advises consumers to enable Automatic Updates in Windows XP to patch their systems, but recommends businesses use patch management tools such as its Systems Management Server (SMS) and Software Update Services (SUS) or third-party products. As such, Microsoft does not expect many users to be grappling with SP2 on Tuesday.

Windows IT Pro (March 30, 2005): Paul Thurrott examines a few of the lesser known features and discusses how SMS combines with WSUS to add more granular content targeting and patch-distribution controls, advanced status reporting, inventory management, and compliance-checking functionality.

Redmond Magazine (January 2005): Lafe Low's article tags SMS 2003 as the Reader's Choice favorite for Best Software Distribution Product and Best License Management Product.

Network World Fusion (January 17, 2005): Network World Fusion (January 17, 2005): Read the roadmap for WUS and Microsoft Update, which will align with SMS and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), and Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA).

Windows IT Pro (January 17, 2005): Windows IT Pro (January 17, 2005): John Savill discusses this image-based solution that lets you deploy Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows XP, and Windows 2000 Server from your SMS infrastructure.

Hardware Zone (November 17, 2004): This article is an in-depth review of Bill Gate's keynote, highlighting all the product news and his discussion around DSI.

Microsoft Watch (November 16, 2004): Mary Jo Foley posted a brief piece in her newsletter about the news coming out of IT Forum.

CNET (November 16, 2004): The focus of this story is DSI, including an overview of the modeling tool in Virtual Server 2005 and the importance of getting developers, system operators, and third parties familiar with the initiative. The author also mentions the WUS beta, MOM 2005, Virtual Server, and the SMS feature packs.

(November 16, 2004): This story is an overview of Microsoft's management technologies based on the Bill Gates' keynote, mentioning MOM 2005, Virtual Server, the SMS feature packs, and DSI.

PC Pro (November 16, 2004): This article highlights all the management product news (MOM, Virtual Server and the VSMT, WUS, and the SMS feature packs) in the context of DSI.

(October 8, 2004): A new Web services specification, WS-Management, is designed to make it easier to meet the industry's high expectations for operational efficiency. This Q&A with Microsoft executives from the Management and Web Services divisions explains this new methodology.

PressPass (May 25, 2004): Microsoft announced the Windows Server System Common Engineering Roadmap, the company's long-term strategy for Windows Server System that focuses on engineering out complexity through integration across server components. The company also announced the initial step on the roadmap, the Windows Server System Common Engineering Criteria for 2005 to help ensure customers will have a consistent and predictable experience across their investments in the Windows Server System.