A little bit delayed because of a stomach flu but on Monday this week Microsoft launched the public beta of Service Pack 1 of Configuration Manager 2012. Normally a Service Pack is mainly released for fixes and a couple of enhancements but what you will see when you download the beta is that a lot of features and support for Operating Systems are added.
Just a quick list of new features:
- Support for Cloud Distribution Points in Windows Azure (support your mobile force)
- The ability to manage your (next version of) Windows Intune Subscription from ConfigMgr 2012 SP1
- Full support for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
- Migration between ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 sites with the Migration feature
- Support for Linux, MAC OSX..
- Windows to Go Support for OSD
- Powershell support.
- And loads more 🙂
And of course the application model is enhanced by adding support for the following deployment types;
- Application Virtualization (App-V) 5.0
- IOS App package (.ipa)
- Link to an IOS application in the Apple store
- Andriod App package (.apk)
- Link to an Andiod package in Google Play
- MAC OS-X application
- Windows (8) App Package (.appx)
- Link to Windows (8) App Package in the Windows Store
- Windows Phone App (.xap)
- Link to Windows Phone App in the Windows Store
Like earlier pre-releases of SP1, you first need to install the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit before that you are able to install Service Pack 1. There is no support for an upgrade of RTM and it is not allowed to install this verison of SP1 in production. In my next blogs I will definitely write about all the new deployment types and all other new features, so stay tuned. In the meanwhile read all about SP1 here and here .
Read also earlier posts about Service Pack 1;
Only beta??? Where is release?! Windows Server 2012 has been already launched. But SCDPM doesn’t backup VMs started at WS2012. Where is SP1 release?!
Like said, SP1 is still in beta and will bring a lot of new features.. It will be released in the “Windows 2012/8” timeframe. Check this link for more information; http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2012/09/10/system-center-2012-configuration-manager-sp1-beta-and-windows-intune-update.aspx