[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]
Many customers in a variety of industries have identified integration, delegation, task orientation, and overall interface simplification as key issues. The Microsoft® Management Console (MMC) provides an improved environment in which Microsoft and ISVs can present management tools called snap-in components (snap-ins).
Microsoft Management Console is a Windows®-based multiple document interface (MDI) application that makes extensive use of Internet technologies. Both Microsoft and ISVs can extend the console by writing MMC snap-ins, which are responsible for performing management tasks.
MMC does not replace existing enterprise management applications, such as Hewlett-Packard OpenView or the IBM Tivoli Management Environment. Instead, it extends these tools by allowing them to interact with or be packaged as snap-ins that can be accessed from the MMC user interface, as indicated in the illustration below. For example, an enterprise management application could detect an event and send an alarm to a snap-in. A system administrator would then see the event in an MMC session and would take appropriate action.