We don't usually associate Microsoft with true enterprise computing. As long as the company's preferred approach to scalability is to add extra servers and compound management problems in the process, it is difficult to see how large scale businesses could operate successfully using only the Microsoft platform. However, there is some evidence that things will start to look different from 2004.
It is not that Microsoft is changing its point of view towards the use of server technology. In that respect, it is still difficult to see the concept of a 'Windows Enterprise' ever coming to fruition. What we can see is an evolving strategy of management and control that will make this environment much more manageable. Once the manageability argument has been faced and handled to the satisfaction of Microsoft customers, we may find that this major objection to Windows in the enterprise starts to fade.
We are, of course, talking about the Microsoft SMS product. This is a product that has done little of value since it first appeared as a part of the Microsoft Back Office suite. Back Office was popular because the suite included the SQL Server database and gave businesses the opportunity to expand beyond the Jet/Access alternative and into a real relational paradigm. Systems Management Server, in many cases, was tried because it was seen as a free option. Unfortunately this also meant that it was not seen to be a significant cost if the idea was rejected.
In this way, SMS didn't take long to become shelfware. It was tedious to configure, hard to maintain the inventory and delivered little value in terms of control and management. What was worse, Microsoft showed little inclination to do much about the situation.
Fortunately, the lethargy surrounding SMS was finally kicked off when Microsoft started to take its market position more seriously. All at once, the company made a commitment to squash all the bugs in its product lines - especially where security vulnerabilities were involved. A part of that strategy included improvements to the manageability of the Windows environment and so, in addition to improvements within Windows Server, SMS gained a new lease of life.
Today's management strategy from Microsoft is built around a basic layer within Windows Server 2003 that covers fundamentals such as networking and security. Above this is an operational layer that provides management functions for Windows, the applications and information held locally. This is where Microsoft SMS 2003 comes into the picture. The functionality that was of limited use previously now has a much stronger role to play. The inventory now supports Active Directory and forms the basis of an asset tracking function. This means that hardware and software components can be scanned and entered into a structure that facilitates their management whilst also feeding into full-scale asset management solutions from third parties.
The usual remote management features are there to help reduce support and maintenance costs but the most important function is that for software distribution and patch management. Microsoft's efforts in addressing its software issues have no meaning unless it can get patches installed on as many systems as possible. To this end, it is using SMS 2003 as a vehicle for scanning Windows systems, identifying patch requirements and delivering packages of updates as necessary.
Microsoft SMS 2003 comes with event monitoring capabilities too. It can seek out and react to events within the managed environment according to rules and business policies. These policies are a key element of Microsoft's Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI). This initiative is designed to bridge the gap between those that develop applications and the operations staff who have to keep business solutions running. SMS 2003 provides facilities for the use of Management Packs where an application comes with its own set of rules that define expected levels of behaviour and reaction to events. Initially this is being implemented within Microsoft within business applications such as Exchange but will be available as a part of Visual Studio .NET from 2004.
The big leap towards enterprise management, however, has come with the introduction of the Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) layer. At its simplest level, this can be seen as a single console providing information about events within the distributed environment. However, the verbosity of Windows can overcrowd the operators' views of the managed environment. What is needed is some control over what is seen. Microsoft has addressed this in two ways. Firstly, it has brought together BizTalk and the management environment so technology events can be incorporated into a business context. This, in itself is a massive step forward in aligning IT and business. The second move strengthens this position further. Microsoft has opened up access to MOM through the introduction of its Connector Framework. This has allowed partners and other third parties to share information with MOM, either by displaying events from non-Windows elements or by passing Windows information into enterprise management solutions that can carry out root cause analysis and other analytical functions.
Thus far, today, the Microsoft solution has evolved to incorporate some important elements of the enterprise view - even supporting business context to a degree. However, there is more to come. Next year we will see the merging of SMS and MOM into the Microsoft System Center. This will provide an ITIL-based operations framework that makes use of connectors for interoperation with third party tools and also provides a feedback mechanism for error reporting. In addition, the management architecture will include a model of the managed infrastructure. This model, known as the System Definition Model (SDM), will reside at the heart of the management solution and will hold details of security and configuration, application instrumentation and data centre policies. This model will be centrally managed and deployed automatically around the distributed Windows environment to provide a customisable solution for each system.
Event information gathered from monitoring agents will be placed into a SQL Server database that can be used for wider analysis in an off-line environment. This provides scenario management and allows operators to find trends and patterns of behaviour that can be used to define better sets of rules. Therefore, by the end of next year, it is conceivable that we will be able to build a management solution based on Microsoft products that will look very similar to its enterprise competitors.
It will have a similar centralised model of the managed environment within its architecture that will allow event data to be abstracted into any view a business requires - including a full service model if the situation demands it. There will be integration with these enterprise management tools at the information level with the Microsoft console able to display events from multiple platforms and provide drill-down into greater detail if necessary.
It's not going to offer complete enterprise management but it will allow Windows to become a more equal member of the management solution. Microsoft already provides a level of business management through BizTalk. Microsoft System Center is going to be more flexible and much stronger.
