Major news today Microsoft announced the availability of the Public Beta of ConfigMgr 2012 Beta 2. Full details in this post from Ken Pan but get downloading as this is the coolest version of ConfigMgr to date.

I am very pleased to inform you that Brad Anderson (Corporate Vice President, Management & Security Division) has just announced the public availability of System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Beta 2 at the day 2 keynote for the Microsoft Management Summit 2011.  This is a huge milestone for the Configuration Manager team.  We started our journey toward Configuration Manager 2012 three years ago with a Billg Thinkweek paper around what “User-Centric Management” really meant, and how we needed to completely rethink the age old problem of, “users X need application Y” as a start.   

Now, we’re announcing the feature complete System Center Configuration Manager 2012 Beta 2 that customers can download and evaluate in their labs today and for our TAP customers, start their production deployments. Read the official announcement here.  Below is a list of top-level features that were completed since the release of Beta 1 in May 2010: 

  • Application model – uninstall, supersedence, enhanced detection methods
  • Compliance settings – create settings from browse experience, user targeting of configuration baselines, in-console monitoring, conflict reporting
  • Software updates – in-console monitoring completed, superseded software update support, automatic deployment of software updates on a schedule
  • Power management – exclude virtual machines, allow end-user to “opt out”
  • Exchange Server connector for mobile devices
  • Collections – new include/exclude rules, organizational folders, incremental evaluation
  • Console – the ribbon is here!
  • Role-based administration – collections as a means to limit an administrative user
  • Boundary groups
  • More migrated objects (App-V packages, boundaries, metering, Asset Intelligence, inventory MOF files)
  • New UI for MOF editing
  • Hierarchy – replication monitoring

From a technology perspective, this will be the most significant release of Configuration Manager in its 16 year history.  We’ve rewritten our core software distribution around a set of user-centric design principles, redesigned our hierarchy model to meet today’s and tomorrow’s needs, and redesigned both our administrative and end-user experiences.  The most exciting things about building Configuration Manager 2012 have been the customer learnings.  Since our Beta 1 release last May, we’ve been on the road helping our TAP customers deploy and evaluate Beta 1, we’ve taken lots of feedback about both quality and functionality, and we have incorporated a lot of those learnings into the Beta 2 release. 

 I would like to thank all our Beta 1 participants and invite all our customers to download and evaluate Beta 2.

You can access more information and download the beta by registering for the Configuration Manager 2012 Open Beta Program on Connect https://connect.microsoft.com/ConfigurationManagervnext/program4346 .

The beta can also be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Centerhttp://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=4da60258-5e61-4d16-8fae-d3c9fccf56dc&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MicrosoftDownloadCenter+%28Microsoft+Download+Center%29#tm. 

You will find the documentation for Configuration Manager 2012 at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg682041.aspx.

 Thanks
Ken Pan
Product Unit Manager
Configuration Manager Product Group

Original posting here:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2011/03/23/announcement-system-center-configuration-manager-2012-beta-2-has-been-released.aspx

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