Three weeks after being announced at Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) in April – and almost one week after a launch in Wellington – IT professionals in Auckland have finally been given the official pitch for Microsoft System Center 2012.

New Zealander and senior product marketing manager, Windows Server - Management for Microsoft, Adam Hall, presented the keynote address at the launch, first leading attendees in a System Center 2012 fist pump (pictured), before showing off some cool demos with the help of Microsoft New Zealand technical solution specialist Stu Fox.

Hall says in 2012, Microsoft expects to see 8 million physical servers deployed; 6 million as traditional servers, and 2 million as hosts for virtual platforms.

However, those 2 million physical servers will host the equivalent of 13 million virtual servers.

"We're looking at around one third physical, two thirds virtual,” Hall says.

System Center 2012 has been built with this in mind, based on feedback from over 200 Technology Adoption Program (TAP) partners, and over 5500 Community Evaluation Program (CEP) partners.

Hall and Fox demonstrated how the system can create a private cloud in less than 30 seconds, configure networks and SAN storage, and handle problems as they arise.

"Things will go wrong, people will do things you don't expect, but when you expect it and manage it you can deal with it,” Hall says.

Microsoft is currently offering a free 180-day trial of System Center 2012 - go here for more.

Microsoft New Zealand's Bradley Borrows provided TechDay with some blogs direct from MMS last month - go here to check them out.