A new public milestone, Beta 2, is available for System Center Configuration Manager 2007:

We are pleased to announce that Configuration Manager 2007 (SMSv4) Beta 2 is now available! You can download the build here:

https://connect.microsoft.com/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?SiteID=16&DownloadID=5509

Please be sure to review the release notes and updated documentation provided in the bundle. In addition to other pre-requisites, you will need the Release Candidate version of WSUS 3.0, available on Microsoft Connect through the Windows Server Update Service 3.0 Beta Site

Regards,
The Configuration Manager 2007 Customer Team

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Operations Manager 2007 Pre-RTM Build
It seems that the Operations Manager product team is almost finalizing RTM for System Center Operations Manager 2007. Tonight they posted an "IDS build" called build 4941 to the Microsoft Connect website for their TAP and RDP customers:

2/20/2007  4941  OpsMgr 2007 Final Pre-RTM "lab only" Build. Please use this build of OpsMgr in your test labs only unless specifically authorized by the OpsMgr product team. There is NO support for upgrade from RC2 to this IDS build. There is NO support for IDS to RTM upgrade. The only supported upgrade path is RC2 to RTM.

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Managed Services Solution (SCE and OpsMgr) Now Available

 The System Center Essentials team is very pleased to announce the availability of the Release Candidate 1 software on the Microsoft Connect site. With the release of SCE RC1 in conjunction with Operations Manager 2007 RC2 you can now test providing managed services to your customers. This solution provides a single entry point for remote management over the internet for customers' server and client environments, leveraging Operations Manager 2007 as the service provider console.

This solution includes:
Support for remote management services over the internet without requiring a VPN
Remote Managed Services management pack
Customer centric service provider views and reports
Diagnostic tasks to troubleshoot problems remotely
Support for remote monitoring and centralized update management, software distribution and software and hardware inventory

To evaluate the System Center "Remote Managed Services" public beta, you will install Operations Manager 2007 RC2 at your service provider data center to provide the top-tier management experience and Essentials 2007 RC1 at your customer locations as the remote end-point for monitoring the customer's environment. To Download: Continue At Source

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The System Center Essentials team is very pleased to announce the availability of the Release Candidate 1 software on the Microsoft Connect site. We encourage you to promptly download and start testing this exciting release of SCE! What's New in Essentials RC1?

Capabilities:

Support for upgrading from WSUS 2.0 and 3.0

Emailed Daily Health Report

Automatic scheduled discovery of computers from Active Directory

Enhanced network monitoring of SNMP-enabled network devices including a network topology diagram view

Remote Control support for remote control of managed client and server computers

Ability to import Update catalogs from third-party software publishers

SQL Services based reporting on monitoring, hardware and software inventory

Setup experience improvements for SQL Server selection and file locations

More management packs including support for Exchange 2003, Dynamics CRM 3.0, and Active Directory

Full Story At Source