What Is Microsoft Operations Manager?
Microsoft Operations Manager 2007 is a next-generation network management software platform that keeps track of the reliability, performance, and safety of your IT system by automatically identifying trouble and tendencies occurring on servers across your entire environment.

Microsoft Operations Manager works by continually scanning event history from designated servers, then filtering, organizing, and evaluating these system events based on an extensive built-in knowledge base. When System Center Operations Manager identifies trouble or a possibly dangerous tendency, it can execute special remedial routines or send alarms to notify appropriate IT people. For example, MS Operations Manager could automatically take off line an infected server to stop the propagation of a detected virus. Microsoft System Center Operations Manager also generates trend data so you can track the robustness of your IT network and make sure that problem warnings have been satisfactorily addressed.

Microsoft Operations Manager 2007 features powerful improvements over MOM 2005 such as rich new reports and an easy to modify reporting system, plus reduction of false warnings thanks to advanced self-tuning tracking parameters that learn and adjust alerting behavior to the normal production operation of programs and hardware. Operations Manager 2007 also features new model-based management. By characterizing the network setup as models, Microsoft Operations Manager 2007 can more readily learn the interactions between the distributed applications and components that represent your IT services. These models, profiled in the System Definition Model that represents the basis for the industry standard Services Modeling Language (SML), allow for more fine-grained discovery of service components and the ability to track not just the servers but the entire end-to-end service as a distinct object.

MS Operations Manager Management Packs
Management Packs are the building blocks which carry System Center Operations Manager management capabilities to OS platforms, programs and utilities, and other network components. A Management Pack (MP) contains field-tested expertise to find, monitor, troubleshoot, report on, and repair problems for a specified network component. Operations Manager Management Packs contain health profiles based on the Systems Definition Model to analyze the efficiency, reliability, set up and protection inputs, plus the health of associated components, to decide the overall condition of components. Management Packs are designed for Microsoft and third party OS platforms, software products, and devices.

Microsoft has created Operations Manager Management Packs for more then 60 Microsoft products and Windows components. Microsoft's MPs are written by the same teams who built the associated products so the experience and knowledge included is derived from the most expert authority. All of the Microsoft Management Packs are provided for authorized users of Operations Manager 2007. MP modules developed by Microsoft include:

3rd-party and Customized Microsoft Operations Manager 2007 Management Packs
Microsoft Operations Manager 2007 Management Packs for many non-Microsoft software products including Linux, Oracle, and SAP, and for a variety of server appliances, are produced and offered by Microsoft Partners. There are more than 100 Microsoft Partner MPs created for the majority of technologies used by most businesses.

Microsoft has published a number of utilities creating or modifying MPs for Operations Manager 2007. Microsoft's Distributed Application Designer is a GUI-based wizard for helping IT administrators to create health profiles and Management Packs for their information technology Services. Microsoft's Management Pack Authoring Console is a GUI-based utility used to assist IT administrators and programmers to create Management Packs for their specialized applications and other technology components. The Operations Manager 2007 Software Development Kit (SDK) provides programming APIs so programmers can more deeply integrate with and automate Microsoft Operations Manager 2007.

Benefits of System Center Operations Manager
Microsoft Operations Manager improves the availability of business-critical servers by proactively detecting and helping to fix problems before they can bring down a network. For an example of how MS Operations Manager has saved money for a San Francisco Bay Area small business, go to the MS Operations Manager Case Study.

MS Operations Manager can improve system throughput by monitoring specified performance criteria and usage trends on key servers, allowing network support personnel to be more proactive in adding performance-boosting products and to eliminate issues before they cause serious network bottlenecks.

MS Operations Manager reduces IT staffing costs by streamlining the tasks of network management. Because MS Operations Manager can efficiently monitor and consolidate massive amounts of data collected from many computers, fewer network managers are needed to take care of operations. Also, the ability of MS Operations Manager to act automatically in response to alerts makes it possible to create expert procedures that can take complex corrective steps which would ordinarily require the manual intervention of IT personnel.

By automatically creating alarms and distributing them via email or pagers to predetermined support personnel, Microsoft Operations Manager makes it easier for IT groups to maintain SLAs. MS Operations Manager's database helps resolve problems more quickly, and Microsoft Operations Manager's reports make sure that trouble tickets don't get ignored. Automatic 24x7 tracking and alert transmission also enables businesses to utilize their support staff more efficiently so that more work can be accomplished without sacrificing system support.

In a nutshell, Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 offers small and midsize companies the benefits of 24x7 system monitoring plus expertise in fixing problems without being required to manage a large, full-time service staff.

How Progent Can Show You How to Benefit from System Center Operations Manager
Deploying Operations Manager's, powerful monitoring software can be a difficult. With over six years of experience with the NetIQ technology upon which Microsoft Operations Manager is built, Progent's IT support experts can assist you to chose appropriate Operations Manager components, install and set up Operations Manager, and create specialized rules, procedures, reports, and alarms for your business. Progent can also create documentation for System Center Operations Manager's server monitoring policies and protocols.

For network issues uncovered by Microsoft Operations Manager, you can outsource trouble tickets to Progent's Microsoft-certified support experts. With years of IT support experience, these support specialists possess the skill to respond effectively to the data produced by Operations Manager to keep mission-critical systems running steadily. By analyzing trend reports and reacting appropriately to alerts, Progent can resolve emerging problems before they result in system failure and repair urgent problems as soon as they appear. In the majority of cases, Progent can handle trouble remotely, conserving time and expense. For severe problems requiring on-premise service, Progent can quickly send a field consultant to the site of any small business in Northern California or in major cities throughout the U.S..

Progent's extensive staff of IT experts makes it possible, if necessary, to escalate challenging problems by tapping the skills to some of the San Francisco Bay Area's most experienced network consultants.

To learn more about System Center Operations Manager and how Progent can enable your small business receive enterprise-class IT support by deploying this revolutionary platform, pick one of these topics:

In order to ask Progent about engineering expertise for Operations Manager, call 1-800-993-9400 or email operations-manager-help@progent.com.

Progent's Support Services for Microsoft .NET Server Technology
For small companies throughout the U.S., Progent's Microsoft-certified experts can provide computer assistance and professional consulting support for the whole array of Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers, Windows 2012 Server, Windows 2008 R2 Server, and Windows Server 2003. Progent's planning, integration, optimization, and support capabilities cover network architecture, configuration, and administration outsourcing for project analysis and documentation, on-site and remote technical support and system troubleshooting, Help Desk Support, comprehensive security consulting, turn-key outsourcing, and server hosting and management options.

If your company requires immediate remote help from a certified consultant, visit Progent's Emergency Remote Technical Support.

Read more details about Progent's Consulting Services for Microsoft Server Products.














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