The Holy Grail of systems and network management is to able to monitor and manage as much of the infrastructure as possible using the fewest tools. Fewer tools mean less complexity and reduced chance of interprocess error.  That, in turn, turns into less finger-pointing when things go wrong.

This is certainly the driving goal behind Microsoft System Center 2012. With announcements this year of extensive multi-vendor, multi-platform support System Center becomes more and more the management platform of choice for many systems and network managers. It is also a critical component, along with Windows Server 2012, of Microsoft’s private cloud strategy providing all-important management of virtual machines (VMs) and how they interoperate. This comprehensive unified management suite consists of eight modules:

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

Supporting Server Selection

While many select their server hardware based on specifications, speeds and feeds, expandability and extensibility, and some even simply on name recognition, most expert network managers would agree that manageability and serviceability are critical criteria in their server selections.

Seamless Extensibility

Establishing a key differentiator for its servers, Dell focuses on manageability in their Dell OpenManage Integration Suite for Microsoft System Center, which is designed to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft System Center to assist administrators in managing Dell hardware and the Microsoft Windows Server environment with heightened efficiency using fewer tools.

Promising to streamline IT execution, maximize IT efficiency and reduce IT expenses, the suite includes:

• Second-generation embedded server management to help you uniformly manage servers in multivendor operating system and hypervisor environments   

• Agent-free server lifecycle management that automates essential tasks, and eliminates agent-based maintenance functions that rob your IT resources of performance, power and productivity

• OpenManage Essentials: a single console for monitoring and management of Dell PowerEdge™ servers, EqualLogic™ and PowerVault™ storage, and PowerConnect™ switches   

• OpenManage Power Center: a single interface to optimize and control energy usage at the server, rack, row and room level

• Additional Partner Consoles for integration with systems management solutions including Microsoft System Center 2012  

As you set out to plan your next data center upgrade, this is an excellent benchmark to evaluate other platforms against.  Dell has not stopped at manufacturing excellent full-featured servers, they have also delivered on a comprehensive management suite that interfaces and interacts seamlessly with Microsoft System Center 2012.