MMS2011: Microsoft Unveils System Center 2012, Project Concero

Earlier today at the Microsoft Management Summit 2011 (MMS2011) here in Las Vegas, Microsoft Vice President Brad Anderson announced a variety of new products and features in the System Center product family, including MicrosoftSystem Center 2012 , the beta availability of Virtual Machine Manager 2012, and codename "Concero," a new System Center feature that allows the product to manage public and private clouds.

Anderson also said that all products in the System Center family -- including Configuration Manager, Operations Manager, Service Manager, and Virtual Machine Manager -- would be updated with new versions within the next 12 months. System Center 2012 will also work with Microsoft's Hyper-V Cloud products to provide a unified environment to manage physical infrastructure, virtual machines, and cloud resources. The Virtual Machine Manager 2012 beta is now available for download, and can be used to manage virtual machines created with Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and VMware ESX Server.

Microsoft's "Concero" project was also discussed, which will arrive on the market as a System Center feature that allows IT managers to more easily deploy and manage applications moved to private and public cloud infrastructures. Concero should also make it easier for IT departments to add web-based, self-service portals that internal departments can use to access cloud resources, which Anderson touted as a way for IT managers to enable cloud flexibility and reduce costs while limiting the need for internal departments to "go around IT" and access public cloud resources directly. "Concero drops on top of your existing System Center infrastructure and helps you create self-service portals that let you embrace the cloud on your terms," Anderson said. "You can then delegate access to those resources to service owners."

I'll be covering MMS2011 here in Las Vegas all week, along with my  Windows IT Pro colleagues Mike Otey, Sean Deuby ( @shorinsean), and Zac Wiggy ( @zacwiggy). Check back tomorrow for more information on what Microsoft will be announcing at the show.

Are you attending MMS 2011 this year? Let me know what you think of the show by commenting on this blog post or following me on Twitter.