What is System Center Essentials?
System Center Essentials is an IT Management product for mid-size businesses (between 50-500 PCs). For more information go to http://www.microsoft.com/sce
SCE is based on SCOM 2007 (MOM), SCCM 2007 (SMS) and WSUS 3.0, so you get the best of those worlds in 1 convenient console!
I wanted to know what the difference with Opsmgr, SSCM and WSUS are:
Comparing System Center Essentials.
System Center Essentials 2007
- Built for midsized businesses (50-500 PCs)
- Target user is IT generalist who performs broad range of IT tasks
- Scale limits: Manage up to 30 Windows Server and 500 Windows Client computers
- Single management server solution (limit one per domain)
- Easy to use – single console
- Lower entry price
System Center Operations Manager and Configuration Manager
- Enterprise class feature set
- Target user is IT specialist with dedicated admin roles (e.g., Desktop Admin, Exchange Admin, etc.)
- "Designed for Big" - scales up to Large Enterprise IT environment
- Multiple management server solution
- Formal compliance and reporting support
- Advanced features and configuration
Business Considerations
Essentials 2007 is likely to be the best IT management solution for a majority of midsize businesses, so long as they are within the scale limits of 30 Windows Servers and 500 Windows Clients. However, determining the right IT management solution for your company may be determined by the maturity and complexity of your IT environment and business needs.
- If your company is a publicly owned company, then you can be held to certain IT standards like Sarbanes Oxley compliance, so you might require features offered by Operations Manager 2007 like Audit Collection Services and Data warehousing.
- If your business employs 1-5 IT administrators who perform a broad range of tasks, then Essentials 2007 may be the best solution for you. If your company employs IT specialists (your IT administrators have distinct and separate IT roles like database administrator, or desktop administrator), you probably need the role-based security provided by Operations Manager 2007.
- If you frequently need to add new Client machines to your IT environment, you may need full operating system deployment and desktop desired configuration features delivered by Configuration Manager 2007.
- If your company has more than 3-5 branch offices and/or the branches are large scale and complex in IT configuration, you should consider using Operations Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2007.
Short comparison with System Center Operations Manager 2007
|
Monitoring |
OpsMgr |
Essentials |
|
Management Packs |
√ |
√ |
|
Servers, Clients & Services |
√ |
√ |
|
Reporting |
√ |
√ |
|
MP Templates |
√ |
√ |
|
User Roles (granular security) |
√ |
|
|
Data Warehouse |
√ |
|
|
Connector Framework |
√ |
|
Detailed comparison with System Center Operations Manager 2007
|
Monitoring |
OpsMgr 2007 |
Essentials 2007 |
Essentials 2007 difference |
|
Monitoring of Windows Servers, Clients, Hardware, Software & Services |
• |
• |
Essentials ships with a Network device management pack. |
|
Management Packs with Expert Knowledge |
• |
• |
|
|
Agentless Exception Monitoring (AEM) |
• |
• |
|
|
Add Monitoring Wizard |
• |
• |
|
|
Reporting |
• |
• |
Essentials data storage limited to 40 days. No report authoring. |
|
Branch office monitoring |
• |
• |
Essentials 2007 is a single server solution; no tiered connection of servers. |
|
Role-based security |
• |
|
Local or domain admin only for Essentials 2007 server. |
|
Connector Framework |
• |
|
|
|
Audit Collection Services |
• |
|
|
|
Web console |
• |
|
|
Short comparison with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
|
CCM |
ConfigMgr |
Essentials |
|
Update Mgmt |
√ |
√ |
|
Software Dist |
√ |
√ |
|
Inventory (HW&SW) |
√ (Extensible) |
√ |
|
OS Deployment |
√ |
|
|
Mobile device mgmt |
√ |
|
|
Desired Config mgmt |
√ |
|
|
Adv. Features (NAP, WoL, etc.) |
√ |
|
|
Branch Office Support |
√ |
√ (simple) |
Detailed comparison with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
|
Configuration |
ConfigMgr 2007 |
Essentials 2007 |
Essentials 2007 difference |
|
Patch Mgmt (Microsoft & Third party) |
• |
• |
|
|
Software Distribution |
• |
• |
Essentials offers basic .MSI and .EXE deployment with optional command line parameters. No advanced packaging capability. |
|
Hardware and Software Inventory |
• |
• |
Essentials collects 60+ fixed software and hardware attributes. Configuration Manager 2007 inventory is extensible. |
|
Branch office updates and software distribution |
• |
• |
Essentials is a single server solution using BITS 2.0 (bandwidth aware). No site replication servers. |
|
Operating System Deployment |
• |
|
|
|
Desired Configuration management |
• |
|
|
|
Wake on LAN |
• |
|
|
|
Network Address Protection (NAP) integration |
• |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Detailed comparison with Update software:
|
Supported Software and Content |
|
Product: |
MBSA |
Microsoft Update |
Windows Server Update Services |
Essentials 2007 |
SMS 2003 |
|
Supported Software and Content |
Same as MU for security update detection. Windows, IE, Exchange and SQL config checks |
Windows 2000+, Exchange 2000+, SQL Server 2000+, Office XP+ with expanding support |
Same as MU |
Same as WSUS 3.0 + third-party and custom updates |
Same as WSUS + NT 4.0 & Win98* + can update any other Windows based software |
|
Content Types Supported |
Service Packs and Security Updates |
All software updates, driver updates, service packs (SPs), and feature packs (FPs) |
Same as MU with only critical driver updates |
All updates, SPs & FPs, + third-party and custom updates & .MSI & .EXE based app installs |
All updates, SPs, & FPs + supports update & app installs for any Windows based softwar |
|
Security Update Management Capabilities |
|
Product |
MBSA |
Microsoft Update |
Windows Server Update Services |
Essentials 2007 |
SMS 2003 |
|
Supported Software and Content |
Simple |
No |
Simple |
Intermediate |
Advanced |
|
Network Bandwidth Optimization |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Update Distribution Control |
No |
No |
Simple |
Advanced |
Advanced |
|
Update Installation & Scheduling Flexibility |
No |
Manual & end user controlled |
Simple |
Advanced |
Advanced |
|
Update Installation Status Reporting |
Simple |
Install errors reported to user. Lists missing updates for accessing computer |
Simple |
Advanced |
Advanced |
|
Deployment Planning |
No |
No |
Simple |
Intermediate |
Advanced |
|
Inventory Management |
No |
No |
No |
Intermediate |
Advanced |
|
Compliance Checking |
Yes |
No |
No – status reporting only |
Informal compliance status and reporting |
Advanced |
Upgrade to Enterprise products?
NONE.
There is not an upgrade path to Opsmgr or to CCM.
The impact of this to you is that if your infrastructure is likely to grow beyond the 30 server/500 PC limit in the near future then it would make sense to consider moving immedaitely the enterprise suite. However if you are confident that this will not be the case then Essentials is a fantastic product which really fits the fast majority of mid-market customer scenarios!!
Conclusion
So Essentials is not a "bundle" of OpsMgr and CCM, there are too many differences. But in fact it's "BUILT" on the following foundation technologies:
- Opsmgr2007
- WSUS 3.0
- SQL server 2005
- Microsoft Update
Greetz,
Alkin