Every once in a while, I'll get a question related to the future of Application Center capabilities, and then I have to do this search for the below mentioned resources. This post is to help me find them easier.

Application Center is an interesting and valuable product, and for those that depend on it these moves for the future are probably troublesome. The good news is that there is a site that explains where all of the Application Center capabilities are going to: Roadmap for Application Center.  This page is a list of questions and their answers. Here are the questions:

  • What is Microsoft announcing about Application Center today?
  • Does this mean the final Roadmap for Application Center has been determined?
  • What is the timeframe for delivering this functionality?
  • Why is it taking so long?
  • Don’t System Center products already deliver some of the monitoring, update and deployment capabilities?
  • How will we know which scenarios are being delivered through alternate products?
  • What happens in the meantime – isn’t Application Center coming to the end of its support lifecycle?
  • Are there any restrictions associated with Application Center scenarios and platform support going forward?
  • If I am an existing Application Center customer, how should I proceed in migrating off Application Center?
  • Can existing customers purchase additional Application Center licenses?
  • Can new customers purchase Application Center licenses?

Another thing that this site promotes is a document that talks about different capability scenarios and which products are now used to do this.  The document is called Managing .NET Web Applications with System Center, and here is the outline:

  • .NET Web Application Management Roadmap
  • Comparison of System Center Feature Set
  • Managing .NET Web Applications with System Center
  • Types of .NET Web Applications
    • Simple Web Application
    • Complex Web Application
    • Extended Enterprise Application
    • Smart Client Application
  • Cluster Services for .NET Web Applications
  • Migrate, Package and Deploy .NET Web Applications with InstallShield & SMS 2003
  • Monitoring .NET Web Application with MOM 2005
  • Administration of NLB Web Cluster
  • Security Considerations