New flexible way for customers to buy Microsoft Operations Management Suite

This post was authored by Mike Schutz, General Manager, Cloud Platform Marketing.

As you think about the transition from traditional IT to cloud, a key element in making that transition possible is IT operations management. Just about every business now has a mix of resources, with some still primarily running on-premises infrastructure and others now heavily relying on hosted or public clouds. While existing on-premises toolsets have some capabilities that can enable management of a hybrid cloud, the cloud presents fundamentally different challenges. Hybrid environments require a shift from optimizing infrastructure to optimizing applications and workloads. You need a new approach to manage the variable set of resources and priorities, while still ensuring that business needs are met.

Just over a year ago, we launched the Microsoft Operations Management Suite (OMS) to increase agility for IT operations. OMS, along with Microsoft System Center, leverages Microsoft’s deep management experience to streamline IT management across any hybrid cloud. With capabilities spanning analytics, automation, configuration, security, backup and disaster recovery, OMS is a cloud-based management platform designed for speed and agility. As a SaaS solution, OMS can be set up within minutes, giving you immediate visibility across your environment. Whether you are managing Windows Server or Linux, private or public clouds, OMS can give you a unified approach that lets you meet the unique requirements of your business.

On July 1, we will introduce an OMS subscription that includes rights to both the cloud capabilities of OMS and the on-premises value of System Center. This new way to buy is an annual subscription option that is priced per end point, so that customers can now simply count the virtual machines or servers they wish to manage instead of calculating usage for individual services. Customers with existing System Center investments will still be able to incorporate cloud management with the OMS add-on, while new customers can take advantage of the simplicity of the OMS subscription. The new subscription provides an all-in-one option for customers to manage their workloads and applications on Windows Server and Linux, across any cloud – including Azure and Amazon Web Services.

Customers are increasingly choosing OMS to meet the demands of the hybrid cloud. Over the last twelve months, the total number of OMS customers has increased by 164%. On average 1000 new customers a week are taking advantage of the new OMS security features. Usage of Automation continues to grow month over month in double digits, with nearly 3 million active jobs today. We’ve also seen high interest in application availability, as the number of instances covered by OMS Site Recovery has increased over 150% since last year. One customer already benefitting from the hybrid capabilities of OMS is the Port Authority of New South Wales. “We love the Microsoft Operations Management Suite for its easy layout,” says George Tzikas, Senior IT Infrastructure Specialist. “Being able to manage our entire on-premises and cloud-based applications and OS platform in one easy to monitor webpage is fantastic. We can now see things we have never seen before in our environment.”

We’re also excited that our Microsoft partners are joining us in the transition to cloud-based management. Gordon McKenna, CEO of UK-based Inframon, believes that OMS offers the only real solution to the challenges customers are facing today when managing a hybrid cloud environment. “OMS provides us with a great platform for our customers’ cloud transformation journey, allowing us to introduce them to new services such as hybrid automation and disaster recovery. We can expand our managed service footprint whilst increasing their capabilities,” says McKenna. “Having a cloud-based management platform, that is easy to deploy and configure and is able to encompass new technologies at a cloud pace is essential.”

The momentum behind the transition to cloud continues to increase. As customers consider their management options, we believe that the cloud-based capabilities of OMS, and the new subscription model, offer a great combination that will make it easier to handle that transition. To learn more about Operations Management Suite and the value it delivers, check out our dedicated blog, Hybrid Cloud IT Management, or follow us on Twitter @MSCloudMgmt.

For more information on the Operations Management Suite subscription, read the Operations Management Suite Pricing and Licensing Datasheet .

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 30, 2016
  Love this step, I think it's the right move and I'm looking forward to July 1!
• Anonymous
  June 30, 2016
  Love this step, I think it's the right move and I'm looking forward to July 1!