Microsoft released to manufacturing (RTM’d) System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVmm) 2008 on October 20th, 2008.

The portfolio of technologies we offer spans the entire IT infrastructure from the desktop to the datacenter, while providing the tools for managing a customer’s infrastructure and apps regardless of whether it’s their physical or virtual assets.

Through the SCVMM 2008 console, administrators can see the entirety of their data center infrastructure – physical or virtual. SCVMM 2008 facilitates key functions like:

  • P2V (physical to virtual) migration
  • Intelligent Placement (selecting the best virtual host for a VM)
  • managing Hyper-V host clusters

Microsoft System Center manages both the physical and virtual environment in the same console. SCVMM 2008 works closely with its siblings – particularly SC Operations Manager – in identifying consolidation candidates and in Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO), a new feature in which SCVMM 2008 can alert and recommend solutions to administrators about failing virtual machines or hardware. This comprehensive view extends throughout the data center as SCVMM 2008 is capable of seeing and managing VMware ESX infrastructure through Virtual Center.

Remember: an unmanaged virtual environment is worse than no virtualization at all.