Microsoft Ships SMS 2003

Early in November, Microsoft shipped the newest version of its November's vulnerability fixes. The company recently moved to a once-a-month patch roll-out, replacing a once-a-week posting of patches. Among the three Windows vulnerabilities announced Tuesday, Microsoft tagged two as "critical," its highest alert level. More information about the vulnerabilities, as well as the patches to fix the flaws, can be found on the Microsoft security Web site.

SMS 2003 is priced at $1,219 for the server license and 10 client access licenses (CALs), or $1,909 with 25 CALs. Additional CALs sell for $279 in packs of five, or $1,089 in packs of 20.

Microsoft's posted a 120-daytry-before-you-buy version of SMS 2003 on its Web site for users to download and evaluate.

enterprise-management software, Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003. This is the opening salvo, said the company, in its Dynamic Systems Initiative, a long-term strategy aimed at making Windows software more self-managing.SMS 2003 offers tools for delivering critical security patches, deploying Windows applications, and managing network asset-resources in the enterprise.

Relying on new management features within Microsoft Server 2003, the Redmond, Wa.-based developer's newest operating system, SMS 2003 sports a host of new features in the application-deployment, asset-management, patch-management, mobility-management, and server-integration areas, said Joe Wilcox, an analyst with Jupiter Research's Microsoft Monitor.Microsoft's touting SMS 2003 as a key piece in its Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), the company's effort to simplify and, more importantly, automate how companies first deploy, then manage, software running on Windows.

"It's absolutely the first step towards DSI," said Wilcox. "But it's pretty much only a first step."

In a nutshell, said Wilcox, DSI is Microsoft's attempt to de-centralize software management. "Management is now very centralized, where a central piece of software, or several such pieces, scope out the network and make sure that things are running the way they're supposed to," he said.

Microsoft envisions DSI as a way to enable Windows software--both its own wares as well as those created by independent software vendors (ISVs)--to communicate more information back to the server, and, ultimately to IT, so that it's more responsive and more self-managing.

Wilcox uses the analogy of a child and its parent to describe DSI. "A baby has to be managed. It can cry to give some indication that certain things need to be taken care of, but the parent has to manage the baby," he said. When fully implemented, DSI would make Windows and its apps more like a growing child, able to do more on its own.But the move toward DSI, SMS 2003's debut notwithstanding, won't happen overnight. In fact, Wilcox predicts that it won't be until the Longhorn time frame, and later--2006 and 2007--when all the DSI pieces are in place.

"Microsoft's made some architectural changes on the server side with Windows Server 2003," said Wilcox that SMS 2003 uses, but change has to take place on the software side as well for DSI to bear fruit. "That's why Microsoft's working with developers to get them to integrate self-aware coding features," he added.

In October, when Microsoft released SMS 2003 to manufacturing, it also debuted an SMS 2003 SDK, or software-development kit, that third-party software makers can use to tie their products into SMS. The goal: more Windows applications that SMS can manage and deploy.

As it announced availability of SMS 2003, Microsoft also announced partners that are working on integrating SMS with their own software. Among them are Vintela, which specializes in Linux and Unix management software, and 1E, a U.K. maker of security patch-management tools.

Security patch management is the SMS 2003 feature most likely to catch the eye of enterprises, thanks--or no thanks--to the wave of patches that enterprises have had to install to protect against vulnerabilities in Windows software. SMS 2003 continuously monitors the status of security patches across the network and includes a wizard that administrators can use to rapidly deliver updates as new patches are released from Redmond."Patch management is a concern right now for a lot of companies. They're frustrated about patch management," said Wilcox.

Windows-centric firms may see a benefit from SMS 2003 on the patch-management side, but, in the real world, most enterprises rely on a heterogeneous environment, in which Windows is only one operating system among many.

"Many companies are put in the situation where they have multiple management systems, which can be a big problem when trying to deploy security patches," said Wilcox.

November's vulnerabilities, and their fixes, can be found on the Microsoft security Web site.

SMS 2003 is priced at $1,219 for the server license and 10 client access licenses (CALs), or $1,909 with 25 CALs. Additional CALs sell for $279 in packs of five, or $1,089 in packs of 20.Microsoft has posted a 120-day "try-before-you-buy" version of SMS 2003 on its Web site for users to download and evaluate.