SQL with Manoj

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit team is pleased to announce that MAP 7.0 is now available for download.

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit is an agentless, automated, multi-product planning and assessment tool for quicker and easier desktop, server and cloud migrations. MAP provides detailed readiness assessment reports and executive proposals with extensive hardware and software information, and actionable recommendations to help organizations accelerate their IT infrastructure planning process, and gather more detail on assets that reside within their current environment. MAP also provides server utilization data for Hyper-V server virtualization planning; identifying server placements, and performing virtualization candidate assessments, including ROI analysis for server consolidation with Hyper-V.

The latest version of the MAP Toolkit adds several new scenarios to help you plan your IT future while supporting your current business needs. Included scenarios help you to:
• Plan your deployment of Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 with hardware and infrastructure readiness assessments
• Size your desktop virtualization needs for both Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and session-based virtualization using Remote Desktop Services
• Ready your information platform for the cloud with SQL Server 2012
• Virtualize your existing Linux servers onto Hyper-V
• Identify opportunities to lower your virtualization costs with Hyper-V using the VMware migration assessment
• Assess user and device access for Lync 2010 Standard licensing

Key features and benefits of MAP 7.0 help you:
• Determine your readiness for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8
• Migrate your VMware-based virtual machines to Hyper-V
• Size your server environment for desktop virtualization
• Simplify migration to SQL Server 2012
• Evaluate your licensing needs for Lync 2010
• Determine active users and devices

Assess Windows Server 2012 readiness
MAP 7.0 assesses the readiness of your IT infrastructure for a Windows Server 2012 deployment. This feature includes detailed and actionable recommendations indicating the machines that meet Windows Server 2012 system requirements and which may require hardware updates. A comprehensive inventory of servers, operating systems, workloads, devices, and server roles is included to help in your planning efforts.

Determine Windows 8 readiness
MAP 7.0 assesses the readiness of your IT environment for your Windows 8 deployment. This feature evaluates your existing hardware against the recommended system requirements for Windows 8. It provides recommendations detailing which machines meet the requirements and which machines may require hardware upgrades.
Key benefits include:
• Assessment report and summary proposal to help you to understand the scope and benefits of a Windows 8 deployment.
• Inventory of desktop computers, deployed operating systems, and applications.

Virtualize your Linux servers on Hyper-V
MAP 7.0 extends its server virtualization scenario to include Linux operating systems. Now, MAP enables you to gather performance data for Linux-based physical and virtual machines and use that information to perform virtualization and private cloud planning analysis for both Windows and Linux-based machines within the Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track scenario.
Key features allow you to:
• Incorporate non-Windows machines into your virtualization planning.
• View consolidation guidance and validated configurations with preconfigured Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track infrastructures, including computing power, network, and storage architectures.
• Get a quick analysis of server consolidation on Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track infrastructures to help accelerate your planning of physical to virtual (P2V) migration to Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track.
• Review recommended guidance and next steps using Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track.

For a comprehensive list of features and benefits, click here.

Next steps:
• Download MAP Toolkit 7.0.
• Send your comments to the MAP Team.
• Learn more about MAP.

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