Although the official release date for SCCM 2012 hasn’t been announced yet, the beta version of the product is currently available.   Simplegrid’s Desktop Engineering practice engineer’s have been evaluating this version and have been quite impressed with it.  The product continues to build upon Microsoft’s “Better Together” strategy, incorporating greater integration for virtual machine support, and Microsoft Forefront.  Along with those features, the following also stood out to use during our evaluation:

User Centric Management – Traditionally, all of the pc lifecycle tools associated software applications to a machine, which is very problematic in environments where users float to different machines, or switch between their desktop and a remote terminal session.  In SCCM 2012, the software can now be associated to a user instead, thus allowing the application to follow the user, regardless of which machine they are logged into.

“Conditional Delivery” – The next version of SCCM introduces the concept of “conditional delivery”.  This delivery method automatically determines whether a user is on a virtual machine, a mobile device, terminal server, or a desktop/laptop and then determines how to deliver the application to the user – choosing between streaming the application, publishing it on a presentation server, or through traditional software deployment method.  This is accomplished even though the application itself needs to be packaged only once within the system.  Furthemore, conditional delivery also determines which device is the user’s primary or secondary device and behaves accordingly.

Software Portal – Microsoft finally caught up to Symantec’s Management Platform’s ability to deliver application via a software portal.    The software portal allows applications to be available to a user via a web page, which they can  install on their own schedule.  This allows for less user disruption, as software applications aren’t forced on users.  Applications on demand also reduce the burden on the IT staff, as they don’t have to always be available to distribute an application to a user.   The software portal is ideal for delivery of non-critical applications to a user.  Applications can still be associated to a user or a group, thus giving administrators control over which applications users can install.

Integrated Console – Following the “Better Together” strategy, SCCM 2012 brings the management of the following technologies into  their configuration manager console:

• Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V)
• Microsoft Enterprise Virtualization (Med-V)
• Citrix XenApp
• Microsoft Forefront 2010

The console also supports the management of the Windows 7 phone, which will allow administrators to enable self-provisioning, device updates, and administer various controls on the devices.

Automated Remediation – Administrators will be able to allow for the automatic remediation of devices that deviate from the defined baseline configuration.  This feature is key for detecting vulnerabilities within the system and identifying non-compliance related issues.

Hierarchy and Client Improvements – Throttling and scheduling tasks can be administered on the distribution points, which will remove the requirement for additional primary sites when these tasks needed to be divided between different administrative groups.     Role based security is also being introduced in SCCM 2012, thus bringing granular control settings to the system, which will allow enterprise administrators to assign site specific administrators only the rights they need to perform the tasks.  Lastly, the SCCM client is introducing a “self healing” function, which will automatically resolve issues within the client, and even reinstall the client if it is removed from the endpoint.

The above are the most exciting features being released in SCCM 2012.  There are a couple of other features that are being introduced, such as Native 64 bit and Unicode support, improved SQL server replication, and improvements to the OS Deployment and Remote Control.  We will report back on these features as we dive deeper into them.

The next version of SCCM seems to be very promising as a PC lifecycle management tool that will meet the needs of our clients.  We’re looking forward to the official release of this product!

Simplegrid’s Desktop Engineering practice is actively working on many VDI, Windows 7 and PC-Lifecycle management projects.

Have a question that you want answered or a topic you want covered in a blog post?  Contact the Simplegrid Team, and we’ll be happy to write about it!

This entry was posted Monday, March 21st, 2011 at 8:00 am and is filed under Business Desktop. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.