Microsoft Solutions for Management now available

Microsoft South Africa today announced the immediate availability of Microsoft Solutions for Management (MSM), a comprehensive service that enables companies to achieve operational excellence and improve the manageability of the Windows platform while reducing total cost of ownership.

Through the use of the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and tools such as Microsoft Systems Management Server and Microsoft Operations Manager, MSM enables IT departments to quickly implement and automate proven industry best practices to address the challenges of critical patch management and software updates, new application installation, and monitoring and controlling services.

"Across the board, companies are faced with increasing IT management and overhead costs, software updates, and management of complex infrastructures," said Albie Bester, solutions specialist for core business infrastructure at Microsoft South Africa.

"MSM delivers the prescriptive guidance, training, products and consulting services that customers need to optimise their operation of the Windows platform for mission-critical services, based on proven industry best practices."

According to Bester, these solutions will reduce the deployment time of change and configuration and operations management processes. This will aid in further reducing the TCO of a Microsoft environment.

MSM provides a blueprint for addressing key management issues by combining people, processes and technology to help solve problems focused around specific scenarios. The solutions are based on the industry-standard IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and on the Microsoft Operations Framework, which provides a practical implementation of ITIL for the Microsoft platform.

"In today`s economy, it`s becoming increasingly important to maximise the return on your network and systems management technology investment," said Cameron Haight, analyst at Gartner. "Among the best ways to do this is with an eye toward the development of best practices by focusing on the IT processes that leverage these products."

The first release of MSM includes the following:

* MSM for Critical Patch Deployment enables organisations to use Microsoft Systems Management Server or Software Update Services to deploy patches, fixes and service packs effectively in Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating environments.

* MSM for New Application Installation, which provides for the deployment of new desktop applications using Systems Management Server. It offers an automated, repeatable method and best practices for quickly and effectively implementing Office XP or other Microsoft desktop applications.

* MSM for Monitoring and Control of Windows 2000 Services and Applications provides best practices for operational management and monitoring of Windows 2000 Server with the Active Directory service and Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server by using Microsoft Operations Manager 2000. This also includes the application of best practices for monitoring, controlling and implementing Microsoft Operations Manager for the highest levels of availability and performance.

* MOF Operations Assessment offering identifies the top issues, process gaps, and technology gaps within the IT operating environment of an enterprise. With the results of the assessment, an enterprise can determine whether it needs additional service offerings or a custom solution, using the best practices provided.

Each of the scenarios includes Product Operations Guides that explain how to implement and operate Microsoft products and technologies consistently with the best practices defined by ITIL and implemented through MOF. Each scenario also includes a Solution Operations Guide that applies best practices to the specific scenario described. Each customer gets an Operations Guide customised to its specific environment.

In addition to these specific scenarios, MSM offers an Operations Assessment Service to identify the top issues, process gaps and technology gaps as well as the operational maturity of an enterprise`s IT operating environment. The assessment enables an organisation to identify and address the most pressing issues in its operating environment.

More information about Microsoft Solutions Management can be found at the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/solutions/msm/.