The keynote focused on desktop management with focus on these features:

  • Configmgr 2007 R3
    • The upcoming release of ConfigMgr. R3. During the SCUG event back in November Wally Mead talked about the R3 feature pack. In the keynote we saw a life demo focusing on the power management feature in R3. It’s really a cool feature that will assist all of us in ongoing effort to save money and become greener.
    • Availability: Beta 1 can be downloaded from Microsoft today
  • ConfigMgr. Citrix XenApp integration
    • We also saw a cool demo of how Citrix XenApp intergrates with ConfigMgr. The demo was presented by Bill Anderson who showed how we within the next 90 days will be able to deliver and publish our XenApps directly from the ConfigMgr. 2007 console – its looks greeeaat and very promising.
    • Availability: Will be released in June 2010.
  • Hyper-V dynamic memory
    • As part of our effort to virtualizing the desktop dynamic memory allocation is really a step forward in the right direction. Dynamic memory defines the amount and maximum of memory allocated to a specific workstation.
    • Availability: Part of Windows 2008 R2 sp1
  • Forefront endpoint protection integrated into ConfigMgr.
    • It has long been known that Forefront will be integrated with ConfigMgr. During the demo we saw (for the first time), how easy it is to deploy the Forefront client and configure the FEP client. One of the really cool features is the number of predefined the collections. Collections that will give us valuable information about client that haven’t scanned, where the deployment failed and much more. The last part of the demo went thru the configuration of FEP policies. It’s all integrated into the ConfigMgr. console and requires no new ConfigMgr. admin skills or servers – how cool is that 🙂
  • Cloud Based Client Management
    • For many consultants the “Cloud” is a little thought – what will happen to my job once the cloud is a reality? Well the Cloud is not a outsourcing project from Microsoft. It’s a solution where Microsoft will deliver the secure infrastructure but we as customers and consultant will be responsible for all the management. As I see it the Cloud will give me much more time to do all the fun stuff and invest time in new projects.
    • Windows Intune is the application we will use to perform our Cloud management.
    • Availability: Windows Intune beta 1 will be available next Monday.
  • Service Manager 2010
    • As announced yesterday Service Manager has finally made it to RTM.
    • Availability: Today
  • User Centric Management
    • UCM is a huge focus area of the Management team. How can we deliver application (y) to user (x). It has been a hassle for years with all management systems – should I target the application to a computer or to the end-user. With ConfigMgr. vNext we are finally able to solve this puzzle and deliver the correct application to the right user. Software distribution in vNext will be much more policy driven meaning that administrators can define which applications should always be installed in a given computer. With this feature applications will automatically be installed if they are required on the computer.
    • Availability: vNext will be public available in beta 1 May this year.