Microsoft just release the first beta of its long awaited help desk software called System Center Service Manager.
This first usable build was expected much earlier but the feedbacks received from the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) testers convinced the company to reconsider the features.
The new development of Service Manager brought in some enhanced capabilities in different areas.
A key one is the change management.
Several new vendors are emerging these days offering change management features for the most popular virtualization platforms. The need for such tools is becoming more concrete as the customers knowledge about virtualization matures and their pilot deployments becomes large-scale virtual infrastructures.
Service Manager will be part of the System Center family, where all the other components are virtualization aware and integrate with Virtual Machine Manager.
Additionally, the new product should arrive in early 2010, when Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V 2.0 are expected.
Now we wonder if Microsoft will be savvy enough to use Service Manager at its first version to introduce change management for its growing-in-complexity virtual infrastructure. We hope so.