The benefits of centralized system management

System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 provides various means to manage and deliver different types of user experience, which might be based on identity, connectivity, and types of devices, all of this without having to give up control over protecting your assets. The following are the benefits of implementing System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2:

• Workstation management: Online System Center offers a solution to the challenge of consumerization by enabling the management and monitoring of workstations and mobile devices, irrespective of whether they belong to the employer or the employee, regardless of their location. Device management is based on Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager using clients that can be installed from the management portal. Management features include asset inventory, software distribution, patch management, and deployment of images. In addition to these, Online System Center offers a comprehensive software packaging service with an option to automatize workstation preinstallations. You can read more about Online System Center at http://www.onlinesystemcenter.com.
• Mobile device management: Mobile device management enables the management of diverse mobile operating systems and smartphones, irrespective of whether they belong to the employer or the employee and the location. You can see all the included functions for mobile device management at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn376523.aspx#bkmk_comps.
• Enables users to be productive from anywhere on any device: This is done through a mechanism to manage a wide range of mobile devices using a single administration console. The product provides optimized and personalized application delivery, based on user identity, device type, and network capabilities. It also allows users to self-provision the application with the help of an online web-based application catalog. To use this function, you require a Windows Intune subscription.
• A unified management of the infrastructure, integrating client management functionalities and protecting against threats: Configuration Manager provides a single tool to manage all your client environments. It consolidates inventory management, software delivery, vulnerability prevention and remediation, and compliance reporting with a single infrastructure. It also offers remote controls, metering, operating system deployment, and so on.
• Simplified administration

In addition, System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 continues to get more integrated and comes with a common look and feel between the consoles of the various components. Combined with data integration between those components, both operationally and in a consolidated data warehouse, it gets more intertwined with cloud computing.