Mobile Device Management (MDM) is the hot new enterprise software area. MDM helps user organisations manage multiple devices, particularly useful for bring your own device (BYOD) computing. The market is dominated by a number of startups, one of which – Zenprise – was recently acquired by Citrix.

Now Microsoft has released a range of new product intended to help enterprise customers manage hybrid cloud services and connected devices “with greater agility and cost-efficiency”. They are a new version (Service Pack 1, or SP1) of its system System Center 2012 software, an enhanced Windows Intune, Windows Azure services for Windows Server. These and a range of other new offerings are intended to “deliver against the Microsoft Cloud OS vision to provide customers and partners with the platform to address their top IT challenges.”

Microsoft holds great store by cloud computing. “With Windows Server and Windows Azure at its core, the Cloud OS provides a consistent platform across customer datacentres, service provider datacentres and the Microsoft public cloud,” said Michael Park, corporate vice president of marketing for Server and Tools, Microsoft.

Using System Center 2012 SP1 with Windows Server 2012, Microsoft says its enterprise customers can shift from managing data centre components separately to delivering resources as a whole, including networking, storage and compute. Cloud infrastructure capabilities such as multitenancy, software-defined networking and storage virtualisation are built in and ready for automated, hybrid cloud environments.

“With the updated System Center, customers can centrally manage cloud-based applications and resources running in their data centres, on a hosted service provider data centre or on Windows Azure. By integrating service provider cloud capacity and management directly into their operations, enterprises can extend their data centre capabilities. Administrators can move virtual machines to Windows Azure and manage them from within System Center, based on their needs.

“Customers can also use System Center 2012 SP1 to back up their servers to Windows Azure to help protect against data loss and corruption. In addition, SP1 supports Global Service Monitor, a new Windows Azure-based service available for trial evaluation today, which provides Web application performance measurement from a user’s perspective,” said Park

“Hosting service providers play a key role in the Cloud OS with the opportunity to deliver new solutions, attract more customers and grow revenues. With Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1, they can build multitenant, massive-scale cloud services that interoperate with customer data centre operations. For example, System Center 2012 SP1 delivers a Service Provider Foundation API, which hosting partners can use to give customers self-service management of hosted infrastructure and applications.”

Microsoft has also released Windows Azure technologies that hosting service providers can run on their own Windows Server 2012 infrastructure for high-scale website and virtual machine hosting services. These capabilities are specifically designed for easy incorporation into hosting service providers’ offerings for deployment to their customer bases.

“With the release of the Windows Intune service and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1, enterprise customers can centrally manage a full array of PCs, laptops and mobile devices. With one management console, IT organisations can crack the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) challenge, helping ensure secure and productive employee experiences with applications and data on virtually any device, anywhere.

“Working as a unified solution, Windows Intune and System Center Configuration Manager provide a comprehensive approach to better securing and managing the new generation of powerful Windows 8 PCs, Windows RT tablets and Windows Phone 8 smartphones, as well as the diversity of other platforms in today’s modern enterprise.”