In April 2022, Microsoft released the latest version of its suite of software management tools, System Center 2022. Today, the company confirmed the next version, System Center 2025, is currently scheduled for a general availability launch sometime in the fall of 2024.
In a blog post, Microsoft says this schedule means that System Center 2025 will have updated versions of its Center Operations Manager (SCOM), Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), Service Manager (SM), System Center Orchestrator (SCO), and Data Protection Manager (DPM) by the end of the year.
It also means that admins will get access to these products alongside the launch of the new Windows Server 2025, which is also scheduled to become generally available this fall. The blog post added:
Being cognizant of your preference to manage heterogenous infrastructure with a single management plane, we are adding support for management & monitoring of Azure Stack HCI 23H2 clusters with VMM & SCOM 2025. You will also have enhanced experience while converting VMware VMs to Windows Server through VMM.
Microsoft says there"s also been some security enhancement in the software suite of System Center 2025. For example, any virtual machines that are created with the use of VMM will default to Generation 2, which Microsoft says should provide a faster and more secure booting experience.
System Center 2025 will also support Transport Layer Security (TLS) version 1.3 for the latest in encryption technology, and the DPM 2025 software will add support to store passphrases in Azure Key Vault.
Microsoft is also ending support for the Azure Profiles feature of VMM and System Center Service Provider Foundation (SPF) with System Center 2025. These services will be built into Arc-enabled VMM.
While System Center 2025 won"t officially launch for several months, Microsoft is letting admins sign up for a private preview of the new versions of VMM and DPM at this site.