Roadmap for Application Center

What is Microsoft announcing about Application Center today?
Per our commitment to Application Center customers, we are providing an update to the status and progress on the Application Center Roadmap.

What is the timeframe for delivering this functionality?
The Application Center capabilities will be delivered across multiple System Center products and releases. For core monitoring, most key Application Center monitoring scenarios will be covered by System Center Operations Manager 2007. For application deployment needs, some of these scenarios will be available in System Center Configuration Manager or the Web Deployment Tool for IIS. Other more advanced scenarios will be available in the next wave of System Center products and the Windows® platform and extensions.

Don't System Center products already deliver some of the monitoring, update and deployment capabilities?
Yes, however these products in their current form address a subset of the Application Center functions and scenarios. In the case of System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), they address many of the Application Center scenarios, but require you to package your application to be delivered by SCCM/SCOM. As such, we recommend Application Center customers evaluate their usage scenarios and plan to migrate to applicable products.

Does IIS deliver some of the web deployment capabilities?
Yes, the Web Deployment Tool is an extension that simplifies management, migration and deployment for web applications on IIS 6.0 and IIS 7.x. It can be used to manage a web farm, including deploying new applications or just keeping changes synchronized between the web farm servers. It allows you to include content, IIS configuration, certificates and more. We recommend Application Center customers evaluate their usage scenarios and plan to migrate to applicable products.

How will we know which scenarios are being delivered through alternate products?
We have published white papers entitled Managing .NET Web Applications with System Center and Using the Web Deployment Tool for Web Farms.

The white paper Managing .NET Web Applications with System Center provides scenario based prescriptive guidance for moving current Application Center 2000 web applications to the relevant System Center products, and to leverage the built-in manageability of Windows Server 2003. This guidance aims to provide an end-to-end solution for managing .NET web applications with shipping technologies. While there are a limited set of Application Center features that do not have a direct replacement many of these will be added to future versions of System Center products. A complete comparison of features included in the System Center products versus those provided by Application Center may be found in the white paper.

The white paper Using the Web Deployment Tool for Web Farms provides guidance for using the Web Deployment Tool to deploy web applications in a web farm, which helps customers address some of the functionality provided by Application Center. This includes the ability to manage a web farm, including deploying new applications or keeping changes synchronized between servers. A complete comparison of features included in the Web Deployment Tool versus those provided by Application Center may be found in the whitepaper.

What happens in the meantime – isn't Application Center coming to the end of its support lifecycle?
Mainstream Support for Application Center ended on July 11, 2006, and Extended Support will be available until July 12, 2011. Extended support is now being offered for at no charge to all Application Center customers.

Are there any restrictions associated with Application Center scenarios and platform support going forward?
Windows Server 2008 or 64-bit support will not be available for Application Center, the recommendation is to continue running Application Center on existing platforms and only migrate to the Windows Server™ 2008 and System-Center-based solutions as and when support for the individual scenarios are available.

If I am an existing Application Center customer, how should I proceed in migrating off Application Center?
Existing Application Center (AC) customers should reference the whitepapers entitled Managing .NET Web Applications with System Center and Using the Web Deployment Tool for Web Farms to help determine whether it makes sense for them to migrate to, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), Web Deployment Tool or a combination of these products.

To assist existing Application Center customers with active Software Assurance as of June 30, 2006 in acquiring the SMS and MOM licenses they may need, we have made a license grant available. The grant provides 1 SMS Server and 1 MOM Server for each eligible AC customer, as well as 1 SMS CML and 1 MOM Enterprise OML for each AC per proc license. More details on the license grant can be found on the Product List.

Can existing customers purchase additional Application Center licenses?
Application Center will no longer be available for purchase starting October 1, 2006. Customers interested in the type of management functionality provided by Application Center should evaluate Systems Management Server (SMS) and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM). Customers using Application Center functionality not replaced by SMS and MOM should discuss options with their Account Representative or Microsoft Support.

Can new customers purchase Application Center licenses?
Application Center will no longer be available for purchase starting October 1, 2006. Customers interested in the type of management functionality provided by Application Center should evaluate Systems Management Server (SMS) and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM).