Windows System Center Configuration Manager to ship in November 2007

System Center Configuration Manager 2007, the next version of Microsoft's systems management software, is set to ship in November.

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 has been designed to ease system administration tasks in order to help IT administrators manage servers, clients and handheld devices across physical, virtual, distributed and mobile systems.

Microsoft said the product uses Microsoft Update, Active Directory, and the Windows architecture to help IT departments assess, migrate and deploy Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and mobile devices in a highly automated end-to-end process.

The product also integrates with Microsoft's Network Access Protection security controls, which puts in place controls to allow only those computers with up-to-date patches to connect to the corporate network.

Download an evaluation version of System Center Configuration Manager here.