System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 - how can you get access?

Since we announced System Center Mobile Device Manager back in October I've been drowning in customer demand for it (a good thing)

On April 1st (bad date I know) it went into public availability through our volume licensing programs. 

Now if you are looking to deploy the solution or trial it I thought I would summarise the key resources you should go to:

Learning More

The best place to get more information is the System Center Mobile Device Manager Home Page.  If you want to be super efficient there are 4 documents you should absolutely read first:

MDM Architecture Guide
This guide provides an overview of the MDM system, including server roles and components. MDM adds four main components on top of your existing infrastructure to deliver application packages, authenticated connection to line-of-business (LOB) applications, and Group Policy rules enforcement for managed devices.
Download this guide
April 1, 2008

MDM Planning Guide
Use this guide to design and plan your MDM deployment, and to configure and install the infrastructure components required to successfully deploy MDM. The guide includes a step-by-step checklist for configuring and deploying MDM. You must review and complete the configuration steps included here before you deploy the MDM system.
Download this guide
April 1, 2008

MDM Deployment Guide
This guide provides the steps to configure Active Directory for MDM and to install the MDM servers. You must complete the pre-deployment planning and configuration steps provided in the MDM Planning Guide before you deploy the MDM system.
Download this guide
April 1, 2008

MDM Security Guide
This guide provides prescriptive guidance for configuring security-related features in MDM. Key security-related features include encrypted access to e-mail and LOB applications from the Internet, and certificate-based authentication for a virtual private network (VPN). Follow the guidelines provided here to help protect company data and communications when you implement MDM in your organization.
Download this guide
April 1, 2008

Trialing/Deploying SCMDM

To trial/deploy SCMDM you will need a minimum of 2 x 64 bit servers (covered in the above documents).  I get lots of questions about whether you can virtualise the servers and currently we don't support this.  The other requirements and guidance are covered in the Deployment Guide (detailed above)

The System Center Mobile Device Manager software is now available as 120 day evaluation version.  You can download it from HERE

Testing with devices

On April 1st (yes I know a bad day) we announced the availability of Windows Mobile 6.1 which is a requirement for System Center Mobile Device Manager.   Devices with 6.1 will be available shortly but in the interim you can get access to the Windows Mobile 6.1 Device Emulators for testing.

If you have existing devices with 6.0 or 5.0 you will need to upgrade them to 6.1.  To ascertain if your device is upgradeable you need to check with your Mobile Operator or OEM.

If you have questions feel free to post a comment.