This week Microsoft announced the release of System Center Essentials 2010 and System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) 2010.
System Center Essentials 2010 (SCE 2010) provides IT professionals in mid-sized organisations with a unified physical and virtual management experience. It enables you to better secure, update, monitor, and troubleshoot from a single console, so you can efficiently and proactively manage your IT environment.
The main addition to this second System Center Essentials release is the seamless integration of Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 technology, making it quick and easy for midsize business to begin realising the cost-cutting benefits of server consolidation using virtualisation. SCE 2010 will enable you to rapidly move from a physical to virtual server environment while maintaining the control and simple management you have come to expect from the product
Additionally, the maximum number of Windows Server devices that SCE can manage has been raised from 30 to 50.