14 DAY TRIAL // Companies that embrace virtualization today will embrace Cloud computing tomorrow, and Microsoft provides them with a set of offerings to guide them along this transition.
In this context, for some business customers, the way to the public Cloud needs to take a detour through private Cloud.
While in the end, the software giant envisions a world in which companies will use its Cloud platform exclusively, at least for the time being it’s providing them with a collection of solutions designed to help them build and manage private Clouds, still running on their own servers.
System Center 2012 is an illustrative example in this regard, especially the Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) component.
A Beta of System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager is already available for download from the software giant for early adopters that want to see what the next generation management solution for virtualized assets from Microsoft brings to the table.
“Our IT customers have told us that their focus is helping their businesses deliver the critical applications that will strengthen their bottom line, while maintaining necessary control and compliance,” said Microsoft Corporate Vice President Brad Anderson.
“Virtualization and server consolidation are important steps toward cloud computing, but it’s essential to have management tools that provide intelligence about how the apps themselves are doing, not just management of virtual machine black boxes. Microsoft’s management solutions provide that insight, along with the needed oversight.”
According to Anderson, VMM 2012 is designed to play nice not only with Microsoft’s own virtualization solutions, but also with third-party platforms and technologies.
Microsoft is currently hard at work to wrap up System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager by the end of 2011.
VMM 2012 RTM will be offered to customers worldwide later this year, although a specific availability deadline wasn’t yet provided.
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012 Beta is available for download here.