Test System Center Cloud Services Process Pack Beta

Microsoft is offering early adopters the chance to test not only System Center Service Manager 2012 Beta but also System Center Cloud Service Process Pack Beta.

Both are available via the same page on the Microsoft Download Center, and of course, can be grabbed free of charge from the software giant.

System Center Cloud Services Process Pack Beta is offered as a ZIP archive pack to customers, and it only weighs 4 MB, so there should be no problems getting it.

Undoubtedly, some testers are already familiar with this offering, albeit under a different label. System Center Cloud Services Process Pack used to be referred to as codenamed “Andes,” according to Travis Wright, a principal program manager on the System Center Service Manager product engineering team.

“System Center Cloud Services Process Pack Beta is Microsoft’s Infrastructure as a Service solution built on the System Center platform,” Wright explains.

“With the System Center Cloud Services Process Pack, enterprises can realize the benefits of Infrastructure as a Service while simultaneously leveraging their existing investments in the Service Manager, Orchestrator, Virtual Machine Manager, and Operations Manager platforms.”

Essentially, System Center Cloud Services Process Pack is designed to help enterprise customers transition to infrastructure as a service (IaaS) as smoothly as possible.

According to the Redmond company, a key aspect of the pack is the fact that it offers a collection of best practices from enterprises that already deployed IaaS.

The software giant has even set up a page on TechNet dedicated to offering information on System Center Cloud Services Process Pack Beta.

Wright notes that “The benefits offered by System Center Cloud Services Process Pack Beta for the enterprise include:

• Deep customization and extension of the cloud services experience; natively supported by the System Center suite of products.

• Reduced cost, effort, and time to deploy cloud services to organizations that already leverage the System Center platform.”

System Center Cloud Services Process Pack Beta is available for download here.