Written by Neil Harrison, Microsoft Premier Field Engineer.
I often see questions on various Microsoft technical forums requesting information relating to the design of infrastructure to support new Microsoft products in their respective environments. This leads me to believe that there are a lot of IT professionals who may not be aware of the Infrastructure Planning and Design series that exists on TechNet.

The Infrastructure and Planning Design Series (IPD) are a series of Solution Accelerators which provide guidance and best practices when making decisions about implementing new technologies.

Leveraging the Microsoft Infrastructure and Planning Design SeriesSo what do you get when you download an IPD? Well, let’s take a look at the System Center Operations Manager (a.k.a. OpsMgr) 2007 IPD and see what it has to offer. This particular IPD includes 3 different resources, as follows:

  1. A 64 page Word document that outlines 11 steps that should be followed in order to have a successful OpsMgr  implementation. This includes information on choosing security models, sizing server hardware, and making other important design decisions.
  2. A Visio document outlining all of the various components that may make up an OpsMgr implementation.
  3. A PowerPoint presentation which can be used to help with internal discussions during the planning and design phase of a new technology.

There are approximately 30 IPDs available for download and are available for all sorts of technologies such as:

  • Exchange 2010
  • SQL Server 2008
  • Active Directory Domain Services
  • System Center Service Manager 2010
  • Choosing the right virtualization technology

It’s even possible to join a beta program to help analyze new IPDs as these are added!

I definitely encourage anybody in the beginning stages of the planning and design phase to check out these great solution accelerators which can be easily downloaded here.