Private Cloud

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Do you still think that the private cloud is just your private servers stored in a public Datacenter elsewhere? Then you are close but not fully informed…… because Private Cloud is more than that. Cloud computing is more a way of thinking, you are as a IT department not delivering servers but delivering services that will help your company do more business. This is called cloud computing.

You can deliver IT services to your company public or private. Public means share your IT service with others you don’t know,  while private cloud shares your IT services (optional) with somebody you know and trust.

Private Cloud works well for infrastructure, especially when it comes to virtualizing servers and desktops. Companies can use the private cloud for infrastructure consolidation, and the ability to share resources to provide the same experience to each user, increased efficiency, and better reliability with high availability and fault tolerant solutions.

For a growing number of businesses, the journey to cloud computing starts with a private cloud implementation. A Microsoft private cloud dramatically changes the way your business produces and consumes IT services by creating a layer of abstraction over your pooled IT resources. This allows your datacenter to offer true infrastructure service capability as well as optimally managed application services. Microsoft private cloud solutions are built on Windows Server and System Center technology.

In most cases businesses have limited time or resources to set up the virtualization, automation, storage, and networking technologies to create and support their own a private cloud solution. Therefore it is a good idea to ask for a professional Cloud focused Service provider specialized in Microsoft System Center to help you setup your private cloud.

System Center 2012 Suite License summary

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General

As you all know Microsoft announced in January changes in how System Center 2012 is licensed. The message was easy, only two different System Center Suite 2012 licensing models:

  • System Center 2012 Standard
  • System Center 2012 Datacenter

When I wrote my blog everything was clear to me, but after a while I got confused by different information on the internet. In this blog I will try to summarize and clarify the System Center 2012 Suite license model on my own no-nonsense way. System Center management servers generally requires server licenses, server management licenses (MLs) for the servers that are being managed, and client MLs for the non-server operating system environments that are being managed.

Server Licenses

In the System Center 2012 Suite Standard and Datacenter the following is Included:

  • Configuration Manager
  • Service Manager
  • Virtual Machine Manager
  • Operations Manager
  • Data Protection Manager
  • Orchestrator
  • App Controller
  • Endpoint Protection

Difference between server license Standard and Enterprise:

  • The System Center 2012 Standard version is for lightly virtualized customers, the license for Standard is for 2 processors and 2 VMs. If you need more you can stack licenses and but there is a breakpoint at 5 VMs.
  • The System Center 2012 Datacenter version is for the ones who are more virtualized. System Center 2012 Datacenter licenses include an unlimited number of VM’s in an on premises 2 processor environment or 8 VM’s in a public cloud environment. Large Enterprises and Cloud providers will benefit most from this model.

Extra information:

  • Both licenses includes SQL Runtime or SQL CAL
  • Licensed Per processor
  • Always includes Software Assurance (SA)

Client Licenses

Regarding Client Management Licensing there are three different editions available:

  • System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (SCCM and SCVMM)
  • System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection (Endpoint Protection subscription
  • System Center Client Management Suite (DPM, SCOM, SCSM, and Orchestrator)

Extra information:

  • Core CAL now includes VMM
  • Enterprise Client Access License (CAL) still has everything
  • Per USER or per Operating System Environment (OSE)

License transitions

What about my current license? How do I get access to the new licensing plan? There are currently four different licensing schemes:

  • Datacenter,
  • Enterprise,
  • Single Enterprise
  • Single Standard.

No matter what licensing model you use today, when you transition to either the new Standard or Datacenter, Microsoft will be “giving” you additional cost value. You get the full System Center Suite, adding additional products to your license, and they also transition the license in a way that gives your even more for you license.

Extra information:

  • Existing licenses under Software Assurance (SA) can upgrade to System Center 2012 at no additional cost. At the date of General Availability, existing licenses will be exchanged for processor based licenses and customers can renew their SA on processor licenses.
  • System Center Server Management Suite Enterprise Edition under SA will be exchanged for a minimum of 2 System Center 2012 Standard Edition licenses per server or for the actual number of processors in use.
  • Standalone Standard or Enterprise Server Management Licenses will be exchanged for a minimum of 1 System Center 2012 Standard Edition licenses per server or for the actual number of processors in use.
  • At the end of the current agreement term, you should do a self-inventory, documenting the number of processors in each server in use with System Center Server Management Suite Enterprise Edition or standalone Server Management Licenses covered with Software Assurance. This will enable customers to receive the appropriate number of processor licenses based on System Center 2012 to continue their current deployments.
  • You should do this self-inventory using the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit or other inventory tools and processes to accurately archive a time/date stamped inventory of hardware tied to System Center installations.
  • If you do not perform the self-inventory, they will receive two System Center 2012 licenses for each System Center Server Management Suite Enterprise Edition and one license for each standalone Server Management License.

SCCM 2012 Site System Roles overview

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System Center Configuration Manager 2012 uses site roles to support management operations at each site. When you install a Configuration Manager site, some site system roles are automatically installed and assigned to the server:

Site System Role
A computer on which you run the Configuration Manager setup program and which provides the core functionality for the site.
Site database server
Hosts the SQL Server database, which stores information about Configuration Manager assets and site data.
Component server
Runs Configuration Manager Services. When you install all the site system roles except for the distribution point role, Configuration Manager automatically installs the component server.
Management point
Provides policy and service location information to clients and receives configuration data from clients.
Distribution point
Contains source files for clients to download, such as application content, software packages, software updates, operating system images, and boot images.
Reporting services point
Integrates with SQL Server Reporting Services to create and manage reports for Configuration Manager.

You can use other servers to run additional site system roles or to transfer some site system roles from the site server by installing and configuring Configuration Manager site system servers:

State migration point
Stores user state data when a computer is migrated to a new operating system.
Software update point
Integrates with Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) to provide software updates to Configuration Manager clients.
System Health Validator point
Validates Configuration Manager Network Access Protection (NAP) policies. It must be installed on a NAP health policy server.
Endpoint Protection point
A site system role that Configuration Manager uses to accept the Endpoint Protection license terms and to configure the default membership for Microsoft Active Protection Service.
Fallback status point
Helps you monitor client installation and identify the clients that are unmanaged because they cannot communicate with their management point.
Out of band service point
Provisions and configures Intel AMT-based computers for out of band management.
Asset Intelligence synchronization point
Connects to System Center Online to download Asset Intelligence catalog information and upload uncategorized titles so that they can be considered for future inclusion in the catalog.
Application Catalog web service point
Provides software information to the Application Catalog website from the Software Library.
Application Catalog website point
Provides users with a list of available software from the Application Catalog.
Enrollment proxy point
Manages enrollment requests from mobile devices so that they can be managed by Configuration Manager.
Enrollment point
Uses PKI certificates to complete mobile device enrollment and to provision Intel AMT-based computers.

More info:
Install and Configure Configuration Manager site system Roles in ConfigMgr 2012.
Fundamentals of Configuration Manager.

Microsoft System Center Advisor is Release Candidate

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Microsoft System Center Advisor is a cloud service hosted on Windows Azure that regularly analyzes your servers configuration. It wil automatically highlight server configuration problems and their solutions for Windows Server and SQL Server. You can check for any recommendations by logging into the Advisor portal. You also have the option of email alerts and recommendations delivered directly to your inbox.

Advisor builds on the architecture of System Center Operations Manager agents, but you don’t have to have System Center Operations Manager installed. Initially, the System Center Advisor provides support for Windows Server and SQL Server workloads, in the near future their will be extend support to additional server products.

System Center Advisor is a new benefit of Software Assurance for SQL Server or Windows Server, currently available in 26 countries. You can evaluate System Center Advisor now through the 60 day free trial. If your organization is already covered by Software Assurance on either SQL Server or Windows Server you can activate the full Advisor service immediately. To find out more about Software Assurance, go to the Software Assurance website.

Further information is also available on the System Center Advisor web page.

System Center 2012 Suite News and Benefits Summary

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There are tons of new features in System Center 2012 but what if need a summary.
Here is a list of new System Center 2012 features and benefits.

System Center App Controller (NEW product)
What’s new?
-          Role-based access for the App Owner
-          Single view of delegated resources across private & public clouds
-          Deploy and manage services as well as virtual machines
Benefits:
-          Increase App Owner agility with self-service interface
-          Save time by bringing together all delegated infrastructure
-          Improve reliability by deploying template-based services
 
Orchestrator (NEW product)
What’s new?
-          Workflow automation
-          Third party integration
-          Simple design of custom workflow runbooks and integration packs
-          Publish-Subscribe Data Bus
Benefits:
-          Lower costs and increase reliability by automating repetitive tasks
-          Simplify heterogeneous datacenter management
 
Virtual Machine Manager
What’s new?
-          Aggregate, standardize and delegate datacenter resources
-          Multi-vendor hypervisor support
-          Service Templates
-          Server Application Virtualization
-          Dynamic Optimization
Benefits:
-          Preserve and optimize existing infrastructure investments
-          Improve infrastructure SLAs
-          Save time with standardized service creation and upgrades
-          Reduce costs through power optimization
 
Configuration Manager
What’s new?
-          Improved Settings management with remediation
-          Integrated anti-malware with System Center Endpoint Protection
-          Delegated Administration
Benefits:
-          Increase compliance
-          Improve support for virtualized environments
-          Reduce cost through integrated security

Service Manager
What’s new?
-          Service Catalog
-          Self Service Request Portal
-          Release & SLA Management
-          Data Warehouse & Reporting
Benefits:
-          Increase organizational agility with customized service offerings
-          Improve corporate compliance through process management
-          Improve business intelligence through customized reporting

Endpoint Protection
What’s new?
-          Role-based management across security and operations.
-          Improved alerting and reporting.
-          Automatic software deployment model.
Benefits:
-          Single Infrastructure for Client Management and Security
-          Industry-leading Malware Detection
-          Improved Visibility for Identifying and Remediating Vulnerabilities

Operations Manager
What’s new?
-          Application Performance Management
-          Monitoring across public and private clouds
-          Improved UNIX & Linux support
-          Network Monitoring
-          Customizable dashboards
Benefits:
-          Simplify management with visibility across the stack
-          Decrease time to resolution with deep application insight
-          Improve insights with personalized reporting

Data Protection Manager
What’s new?
-          Centralized management of DPM servers
-          Role based administration
-          Item-level recovery for virtual machines
Benefits:
-          Save time with consolidated management server console
-          Secure access for the broader IT team
-          Quicker time to recovery

New System Center 2012 Suite for Private Cloud

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Today on January 17, 2012 at the Microsoft Private Cloud event, at http://www.microsoft.com/business/events/en-us/PrivateCloudExec

Microsoft is announcing a change in how System Center is licensed.

Two new System Center 2012 Suite licensing models:
- System Center 2012 Standard
- System Center 2012 Datacenter

The difference between the two versions is
- Pricing
- Virtualization

In both System Center 2012 suite is included:
- Configuration Manager
- Service Manager
- Virtual Machine Manager
- Operations Manager
- Data Protection Manager
- Orchestrator
- App Controller
- Endpoint Protection

Remember that Software Assurance is needed!

Standard versus Datacenter

Standard version is for lightly virtualized customers, the license for Standard is for  2 processors and 2 VMs. If you need more you can stack licenses and but there is a breakpoint at 5 VMs.
Datacenter version is for the ones who are more virtualized. System Center 2012 Datacenter licenses include an unlimited number of VM’s in an on premises 2 processor environment or 8 VM’s in a public cloud environment. Large Enterprises and Cloud providers will benefit most from this model.

More detailed information: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/new.aspx

 

About Private Cloud and Microsoft System Center

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What is Private Cloud about?

There are many definitions for cloud computing, but one of the more concise and widely recognized definitions comes from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST defines five essential characteristics. The essential characteristics form the core of the definition. The required characteristics for any solution to be called a true “cloud” solution includes:

  • On-demand self-service (pay-by-use)
  • Broad network access
  • Resource pooling
  • Rapid elasticity
  • Measured service

So Private Cloud is a computing model that deliverers a standardized manner with the additional control and customization available from dedicated resources onsite in your own IT infrastructure. In order to build that Private Cloud we need Microsoft System Center products and Hyper-V virtualization:
For faciliating the Private Cloud Self Service Portal an already existing Microsoft Sharepoint Portal is a great place to host the System Centrer and Forefront Identity Manager.

Transforming IT with Microsoft Private Cloud

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Reply

The definition, business value, and technology benefits of the “the cloud” have been hotly debated in recent months. Most agree that cloud computing can accelerate innovation, reduce costs, and increase business agility in the market. In 2012, cloud computing will transition from hype and discussion, to part of every enterprise’s reality, and IT is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation and help business reap the benefits of cloud computing.

The new System Center 2012 vision will be laid out in full detail!

Register for it here: http://www.microsoft.com/business/events/en-us/PrivateCloudExec

Date: January 17th 2012 Time: 17:30h CET

Changing

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This site is about changing the way we use and implement our Microsoft infrastructure.

Many companies are under economic pressure. Reorganizations, takeovers, mergers, downsizings, joint ventures, and other changes are extremely common, as companies try to grow and survive. This will present new challenges and demands for everyone, from the C.E.O to the telephone receptionist. All members of the organization must learn to cope with change or suffer consequences.

Most of us prefer established routines off course, but this blog is about the fun of changing the way we work with Microsoft Information Technology. I will try to wite down my interpretation of today’s changes in the way we use our Microsoft infrastructure Software in order to get more benefits out of investments.

Kind Regards, Frank van Hout