Announcing System Center 2012

Today, Microsoft announced a major new development in the Microsoft private cloud strategy and core management platform, the launch of Microsoft System Center 2012. System Center 2012 allows you to manage your virtual, physical, and cloud environments from a single console, using common and consistent experiences that provide full control across your existing datacenter investments.

Optimized for service delivery and providing both flexibility and control, the Microsoft private cloud enables you to experience IT as a Service on your terms. Adopting a more service-driven IT model can help you provision services faster—freeing up resources and enabling greater business agility to respond quickly to customer demands.

As part of the System Center 2012 release, Microsoft is simplifying how you purchase and gain access to the economic benefits of the cloud by offering two editions:

• System Center 2012 Standard Edition, for managing environments with no or low density virtualization
• System Center 2012 Datacenter Edition, for managing high density virtualization environments

With these streamlined purchasing options and enhanced private cloud capabilities, we are also announcing changes in the licensing and pricing of System Center 2012.

I am very excited about this brand new release of System Center and this is definitely testament to the fact that today we are committed to having the best and most complete Private Cloud solution in the market.

I will soon be posting more information on the new Standard and Datacenter editions and also provide more clarity on the new licensing scheme for System Center 2012 and how this will benefit both new and existing customers alike.

In the meantime, you can learn more about the Microsoft private cloud and the exciting new features in System Center 2012 at the Microsoft private cloud website.

Shijaz Abdulla is a Partner Technology Advisor at Microsoft, helping their top tier partners build on their Microsoft practice. He is also a trusted advisor to medium enterprise customers in Qatar. He is a blogger, tech enthusiast, and a Microsoft evangelist.

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