January 23, 2007
Omar, Omar, Omar....Why must you always.....read on folks.
"If you are considering SCCM 2007 and you have your 'legacy' SMS 2003 running on ITMU or ITCU? -Forget it! SCCM 2007 will use WSUS. But will a few lesser screenclicks really speed up your patch management?
The integration of ITMU / ITCU in SMS2003 was for me one of the biggest milestones for centralised patch management. I was an advocate to get rid of WSUS. Ok, you had to put your mind to work managing all the update tools and agents or when compiling all patches into the packages, but it worked great. Microsoft's MOF and the original ITIL change and/or security process worked flawless together with it: It created the neccesary timeframe you needed to do it and gives you the support from the whole organisation as agreed in the SLA.
Anyhow, it seemed that MS was getting feedback that ITxU had too much complexity to it. During last MMS the promise was made that patching in SCCM would be more simplified - "We are going to bring back the dialog screens from X to Y."
True, you had to click through a lot of screens, but i never counted. But now I have seen how they did it. SCCM Beta 3 has it finalised MMC where WSUS has found it's place as a node.
So what changed? As SMS admin or patch admin you'll be able to do your job in less "clicks", but that will not change the complexity of the Patch management process behind it. And that is the most time consuming part. If you do not have any ITIL or MOF process supporting SMS I can only advise you put it on your To-Do list as 'Urgent'. And you know you need it - If you are as eager as me to get your hands on SC Service Desk. There is no way out.
I think i'll have to warn some of my customers who will be deactivating their WSUS server soon in favour of their just implemented SMS 2003 + ITMU v3. And start explaining too
"
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Technical Consultant |Microsoft Practices | 909-379-8934 | Dimension Data
“Dimension Data is Microsoft’s 2006 Global Advanced Infrastructure Technology Innovation
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