System Center 2012 & Veeam: A FANTASTIC Offer!

Veeam celebrates the official release of the Microsoft System Center 2012 suite by offering a free 10-socket license of the Veeam Management Pack for deep VMware monitoring in Microsoft System Center 2012 (OM12 that is of course).

Am I eligible?
You’re eligible when you meet these two requirements:

1. You’re new to the Veeam MP;
2. You have System Center 2012 in place or plans to deploy it soon.

Why are you so happy about this?
Good question! It’s just that I love this product since it brings the best out of any OM12 deployment where monitoring of the VMware environment is required. Here are some of best USPs (Unique Selling Points) of any Veeam MP usage, whether you use SCOM R2 or OM12:

1. VMware Expert out of the Box
   An Alert is not just an Alert. Every Alert contains a wealth of information about the possible causes of the Alert and how to fix them. Many times an Alert contains url’s referring to KB articles of VMware. This way the SCOM Operators don’t require deep knowledge of VMware.
   
   
2. BoBW (Best of Both Worlds)
   Veeam MP integrates seamlessly with vCenter AND OpsMgr without violating anything. It connects to vCenter through valid mechanisms for vCenter and by using a READ-ONLY account. So the Veeam MP can only look into vCenter but not touch anything. By using a proxy-like feature on a dedicated virtual server (VEM, Virtual Enterprise Management Server), the collected information from vCenter is translated to ‘SCOM/OM12’ language. This information is fed to the SCOM/OM12 Agent running on the same server and piped into SCOM/OM12. So for SCOM/OM12 valid mechanisms are used as well.
   
   
3. Use the power of vCenter and SCOM/OM12 to the fullest
   Yes, some basic monitoring can be done by vCenter. But vCenter is by design a resource management tool and nothing more. Where as SCOM/OM12 is a pure bred MONITORING tool. The Veeam MP uses both products for what’s meant for, thus enriching the management of the total VMware infrastructure.
   
   
4. Good Support
   Even when a product delivers value for money, which the Veeam MP certainly does, good support is also a requirement. Veeam delivers awesome support. A shiny example: a key customer of mine had really deep technical questions about the MP while they were only running the test version which has full functionality but only runs for a limited time.
   
   For them it was crucial to get good answers. So Veeam Support was contacted. However, they couldn’t answer those questions since those questions were really special and more about VMware itself than it related to the Veeam MP. So the support department arranged an online meeting with the developers of the Veeam MP for the next day. The VMware experts of my key customer talked with them for an hour or two and were totally satisfied. They got their answers AND on top of it, additional advice for fine tuning their VMware environment even more. They were very impressed of the deep insights and knowledge about VMware. As a result they wrote an internal business case for buying that MP. And they got it! They tell me the MP has shown them many issues before they became critical, thus making the VMware environment even more available to the business then before the MP was in place.
   
   
5. Good release cycles
   When VMware releases a new version, Veeam will follow soon with a fully supported version also supporting upgrades.

Interested? Go here and be surprised just like me.