Microsoft"s partners are excited about the vendor"s plans to offer a tool for remotely managing their customers" infrastructure, but some feel the initial pricing for the product is unrealistically high. At its worldwide partner conference last month, Microsoft unveiled System Center Remote Operations Manager 2007, a solution that uses Microsoft Operations Manager 2007 (MOM) to provide remote managed services to midmarket and SMB customers that have a System Center Essentials 2007 server installed at their premises.
Remote Operations Manager licensing is available only through Microsoft"s Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA). Monthly recurring costs for each server managed are $13.85 per month, or $166 per year, and each client managed is priced at 55 cents per month. For System Center Essentials, which the VAR can either purchase or resell directly to the end user, the price tag is $2,000 plus Software Assurance, which covers 10 servers and 50 clients, with additional servers priced at $100 for a perpetual license.