Faced with the onerous task of managing a complex IT environment, coupled with the constant pressure to drive business value, IT managers are looking for automated tools to help them manage their systems, networks, assets, and data centers. Microsoft's release of the System Center suite has far-reaching implications for IT professionals and the system management market.

Heterogeneous Shops Desperate for Consolidated Management

There are at least five main drivers behind the growing complexity of data centers and the services they deliver to the rest of the business:

• The continued rise of industry-standard computing.
• Ever-diversifying IT architectures.
• Increasing regulatory compliance across all verticals.
• Convergence of security, system, and storage management.
• Adoption of virtualization.

In addition, the trend of decentralization has resulted in single-application servers being deployed wherever the users were. This often requires recruiting a full-time employee...