On November 1, 2024, Microsoft System Center 2025 will be generally available worldwide. In June 2024, Microsoft had announced Microsoft System Center 2025. System Center 2025 brings infrastructure modernization and enhanced security to the datacenter, enabling simplified management of complex environments and allowing users to make the most of Windows Server 2025 features immediately.
Since its initial release in 2008, System Center has delivered a simplified datacenter management experience – whether on-premises, in the cloud, or across platforms.
The previous release, System Center 2022, will continue to be available and supported.
Licensing Programs
General availability (GA): November 1, 2024 for Volume Licensing (VL) programs, except the following:
- Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA): January 1, 2025
- Cloud Solution Provider (CSP): to be announced
What’s new in System Center 2025?
Unified Management:
- Oversee and monitor Azure Stack HCI 23H2 clusters using Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) and System Center Operations Manager 2025.
Control diverse infrastructure through a single management plane.
Enhanced Security:
- System Center 2025 boosts security for operations, storage, and authentication mechanisms, ensuring reliability and safety.
Latest Arc Capabilities:
- Support for Windows Server 2025’s Arc-enabled features, including Hotpatching for Arc-enabled SCVMM.
- Perform lifecycle operations (start, stop, create, scale, resize, delete) on SCVMM-managed VMs hosted in customer datacenters.
Data Protection:
- Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2025 now securely stores passphrases in Azure Key Vault, leveraging Azure’s robust cloud infrastructure.
Supports OLEDB 19, reinforcing its commitment to data security.
Updates to pricing and licensing
System Center 2025 will have new prices across all commercial channels. With this release, the price will increase by 10% compared to the previous release (2022). The new pricing supports the continued development and improvement of System Center, ensuring it remains a leading solution for managing complex IT environments.
System Center 2025 will be sold as a perpetual license. The System Center 2025 licensing model for Standard and Datacenter will be the same as 2022 with server and client management licenses. As with System Center 2022, the 2025 editions will be differentiated by virtualization rights only. Licenses are required only for the endpoints being managed. No additional licenses are needed for customers with SQL Server Standard Edition. The server management licensing of System Center 2025 will be based on physical cores. The core-based licensing will align with the Windows Server 2025 model to provide a consistent licensing metric for managed VMs.
More information
For more information about Microsoft System Center 2025, please read our previous and updated article here: https://www.schneider.im/microsoft-system-center-2025-next-level-infrastructure-management/.
Learn more about the System Center 2025 purchase experience when it becomes available: https://partner.microsoft.com/en-US/solutions/microsoft-system-center.
For more on Microsoft licensing, visit our Microsoft vendor page at: https://www.schneider.im/software/microsoft/.
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