System Center 2012 is getting closer and today saw Microsoft release details of the new licensing models.

Currently the various System Center products (SCCM, SCOM, SCSM, DPM etc) can be purchased individually or as bundles, from 2012 however it’s bundles only. There will be 2 flavours:

• Standard
• DataCenter

with the difference being the number of OSEs (Operating System Environments) that can be managed:

Following DPM 2010’s lead there will now be no more console server licences or SQL needed, simply Management Licences for the endpoints being managed.

Determining the number of licences needed will involve knowledge of the virtual environment & physical processors, similar to SQL:

 

System Center 2012 has a much greater focus on “The Cloud” and as such:

This enables organizations to move to a hybrid infrastructure much more easily.

What if I already have System Center?

If you have System Center with Software Assurance that is current at the time of 2012 General Availability you will receive the following grants:

What about Client devices?

More changes abound here too, there are now 3 Client ML offerings:

It’s important to note that, as with the Server MLs:

“Components included in the Client MLs are not available separately”

Opinion

Overall I think this is a good move. Again, Microsoft are modifying their licensing to make it more dynamic, more future proof and more accessible to companies going forwards.

Yes, there will be situations where it works out more expensive for some companies but for the vast majority this is a great move…they’ll have the ability to deploy a wider range of System Center products with streamlined licensing, which is good for everyone

That said, I’m off to review a number of proposals to see how they map to the new models and what changes need to be made – good times! (Thing is, I actually mean that )

Any questions, let me know.