Interview with Essentials 2007 MVP Pete Zerger
I conducted a short interview with Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007 MVP Peter Zerger. Pete manages systemcenterforum.org, which is an excellent resource for Operations Manager 2007, Essentials 2007 and MOM 2005 users. He has great things to say about Essentials 2007 and offers thoughts on how customers use the product.
1) Tell me a bit about yourself; how you got into this field, the blogs/forums you manage, other products you support, hobbies, etc.
In my daily work life, I am an IT consultant working with medium and large organizations supporting a variety of technologies, including Operations Manager and Essentials, Active Directory, Exchange, SQL, virtualization, as well as various authoring activities related to Operations Manager.
In my community life (the fun part), I manage systemcenterforum.org, which is my primary site where we provide news and community solutions for Operations Manager 2007, Essentials 2007 and MOM 2005. I also spend time in the MS Operations Manager newsgroups, SCE Managed Forums, and SystemCenterCommunity.com
2) How did you become an Essentials MVP? How has your work changed now that you are an MVP?
I actually became an MVP in the MOM 2005 days supporting the MS newsgroups, and maintaining a popular MOM-centric blog. As an MVP, I have been working in the community for the past couple of years working to assist end users in better understanding the MS operations management platforms and helping them better utilize the technology.
3) Describe your typical Essentials 2007 customer(s).
They are the same as the customers I support in the community. These are mid-market environments, trying to meet enterprise business needs on a limited budget without true network engineers. These are folks trying to delivery big things for the businesses they support with very limited resources. Essentials 2007 is really exciting in the sense that is it the first product I've seen that attempts to deliver the most important IT operations-related functionality in a single product at an affordable price point.
4) In your mind, what is your favorite feature in Essentials 2007 and why.
Software deployment hands down. This is traditionally a very complex task, and I think the team did a great job in delivering this functionality in SCE in a way that most administrators can readily understand.
5) If you could request a single feature to be added in the next release, what would it be? Why is that feature important?
I cannot think of one, but I can think of several. :)
Speaking generally about the platform as a whole, we can't assume all mid-market enterprises come in nice, neat single-domain, one-location flavor. I would like to see greater flexibility and extensibility in various features, such as patch management for machines without an agent installed, certificated-based authentication, capability to customize inventory (as in SCCM).
I would also like to see Internet-only management functionality for remote and traveling users, as is possible in SCCM (do you notice a theme here?).
Remote web workplace for Essentials customers (without the need for ROM) would also be great.
Given the current functionality, I think antivirus and potentially e-mail filtering are other logical extensions of the platform.
6) Anything else you would like to add?
With the first release of Essentials, Microsoft has a good start on a great idea. I would say to the product team to always remember the driving principle behind Essentials - A complete operations and systems management platform wrapped in a simple-to-use interface for the IT generalist. Examine every existing and planned feature, put it in front of the target market and get first-hand feedback at ease of use. In Essentials v2, platform stability and ease-of-use must rule for the long-term success of the platform.
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