Windows Deployment Stuff

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:02 AM

Infrastructure Optimisation (IO): The Foundations of Dynamic IT

Many organisations today realise the value of technology in driving business differentiation. A lot of the time technology is imperative to increase and improve business performance in today's enterprise environments and thus become a true corporate asset that delivers that business value. CIO's require their IT infrastructure to help advance rather than impede the business. These business needs bring greater pressure and ever increasing demands on IT departments to deliver technically enhanced infrastructures.

The vision of infrastructure optimisation and Dynamic IT is to help customers realise the value in their IT infrastructure investments and to make the IT infrastructures a strategic asset by reducing cost and increasing agility within their organisations.

Many organisations have embraced IO, yet it still surprises me when I speak to customers and how many either haven't heard of IO or have investigated IO but feel it is to much to implement. IO is there to help customers achieve truly optimised infrastructure solutions either as part of implementations delivered internally or through partnerships with system integrators who specialise in IO delivery.

A great IO success story was, when in 2005 The City of Edinburgh Council in partnership with their outsource partner BT used the IO model to embark on a service led engagement to deliver their Smart City vision. The vision will enable the council to make a total saving of approximately £6.4 million over 5 years whilst optimising the IT infrastructure to drive improved application performance and business resilience, achieve more effective partnerships with partners and implement an environment that will enable all citizens to engage more easily with the council.

As Doug Barney, editor in chief of Redmondmagazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group says in his article 'Infrastructure Optimization for IT';

"IO is a rich and detailed model, and well worth the time it takes to fully understand it."

IO is always a topic that gets addressed when I talk to organisations about deploying Windows Vista. By introducing a modularised, HAL independent OS, a new file based, non destructive imaging format (WIM) and a new servicing stack, Windows Vista enables organisations to simplify image management and reduce the number of images that need to be maintained. This, in conjunction with using the new deployment tools like the Automated Installation Kit (AIK) and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, can help organisations move along the Core IO model in Desktop, Device and Server Management by reducing manual complexity and increasing optimised automation. Many people are still struggling to see the value in moving to Windows Vista in the enterprise. Aside from increased security and compliance (with features like BitLocker Drive Encryption, Windows Service Hardening, User Account Control and enhanced IE 7 and firewall security) and end user productivity (with integrated search, AERO and mobility improvements), the way in which we can deploy and manage the Windows platform really can derive true value in the investment many organisations have already made and optimise their core infrastructure. And by making the investments today to optimise infrastructures to deploy Windows Vista, making the move to Windows 7 could be as simple as making a ‘business as usual’ change control request to the new OS.

To find out more about Infrastructure Optimisation, visit http://www.microsoft.com/io or http://www.microsoft.com/infrastructure/default.mspx where businesses can learn more about IO and even take the self assessment to find out where their are measured on the IO scale. Partners fear not, as http://www.microsoftio.com provides the Microsoft Optimization Partner Resources.

Posted by Jason Stiff | 1 Comments

Filed under: Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, Infrastructure Optimization

Wednesday, November 12, 2008 10:54 PM

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.2 RTM Released

Many of our customers do not know what computers are in their IT environment or what applications have been deployed. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 3.2 makes it easier for customers and partners to quickly identify what servers, workstations, and network devices are in their IT environment. MAP also provides specific and actionable IT proposals and reports to help customers get the most value out of Microsoft products and infrastructure. Over 500,000 Microsoft customers and partners have already used MAP and its prior versions including Costco Wholesale Corporation, Continental Airlines, and Banque de Luxembourg.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP)Toolkit is a scalable and agent-less assessment platform designed to make it easier for our customers to adopt the latest Microsoft technologies. In this latest version, MAP has expanded its assessment capabilities to include SQL Server 2008, Security Assessment Proposal, Forefront/NAP migration, Microsoft Online Services, as well as providing a Power Savings assessment to help your customers “go green.”

In summary, MAP Toolkit 3.2 assessment areas now include:

SQL Server 2008 Migration Proposals and Reports (NEW!)
Security Assessment Proposal (NEW!)
Forefront/NAP Readiness Proposals (NEW!)
Microsoft Online Services Migration Surveys, Proposals, and Reports (NEW!)
Power Savings Proposals (NEW!)
Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 Migration Proposals and Reports (NEW!)
Server Migration Reports and Proposals (Windows Server 2008 and “virtualized guests by hosts” reporting) (NEW!)
Server Consolidation Reports and Proposals (Virtual Server 2005 R2 and Hyper-V)
Desktop Security Assessment to determine if desktops have anti-virus and anti-malware programs installed and up-to-date, or if the Windows Firewall is turned on
Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 Hardware Assessment Reports and Proposal

Toolkit Features

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit performs key functions that include hardware and device inventory, compatibility analysis, and readiness reporting.

MAP utilizes an enterprise-scale, agent-less architecture that enables users to inventory their servers, desktops, applications, and network devices without installing any software agents on each machine being assessed. This tool has the ability to discover all computers within Active Directory, and most importantly, non-IT managed machines such as workgroup members.
Additionally, MAP can generate localized desktop readiness reports in seven languages including North American English, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Benefits to Customers and Partners

Fast and Agent-less. MAP provides secure network-wide assessment of environments of up to 100,000 computers in a matter of hours instead of days, all without deploying any software agents on each inventoried machine.
Saves Pre-Sales and Planning Time. For most IT consultants and Microsoft Partners, a detailed network inventory and assessment of servers and desktops often takes days of manual labour. With MAP, they can now drastically reduce the time it takes for the same inventory to a matter of hours; allowing them more time to focus their efforts on critical pre-sales engagement tasks. For IT professionals, MAP can significantly reduce the time it takes to gather the information necessary to make the business case for client and server migration, as well as for their upcoming virtualization projects.
Actionable Recommendations and Reporting. MAP offers valuable inventory and readiness assessment reports with specific upgrade recommendations and virtualization candidate reports that make it easier for IT migration and deployment projects to get off the ground and running.
Coverage from Desktops to Servers. MAP provides technology assessment and planning recommendations for many Microsoft desktop and server products including SQL Server 2008, Forefront/NAP, Microsoft Online Services, Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005 R2, Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft Office, Microsoft Application Virtualization (or App-V), System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007, and more.

Next Steps

Download Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.2 (RTM Bits)

Learn more about MAP on TechNet or Microsoft Partner Program Portal

Read Hyper-V/MAP Toolkit Case Studies: See how Costco Wholesale Corporation, Continental Airlines, and Banque de Luxembourg benefitted from using the MAP Toolkit

Read the MAP Team Blog

Listen to TechNet webcasts on MAP

Join the TechNet Forum Community for MAP

Use MAP together with the Integrated Virtualization ROI Tool

MAP is a member of the family of Server, Desktop, and Virtualization Solution Accelerators.

Posted by Jason Stiff | 0 Comments

Filed under: MAP, Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 3.2

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 10:39 PM

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.2 Release for Beta!

Many of our customers do not know what computers are in their IT environment or what applications have been deployed. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 3.2 Beta makes it easier for customers and partners to quickly identify what servers, workstations, and network devices are in their IT environment. MAP also provides specific and actionable IT proposals and reports to help customers get the most value out of Microsoft products and infrastructure. Over 500,000 Microsoft customers and partners have already used MAP and its prior versions including Costco Wholesale Corporation, Continental Airlines, and Banque de Luxembourg.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit is a scalable and agent-less assessment platform designed to make it easier for our customers to adopt the latest Microsoft technologies. In this latest version, MAP has expanded its assessment capabilities to include SQL Server 2008, Security Assessment Proposal, Forefront/NAP migration, Microsoft Online Services, as well as providing a Power Savings assessment to help your customers “go green.”
In summary, MAP 3.2 assessment areas now include:

SQL Server 2008 Migration Proposals and Reports (NEW!)
Security Assessment Proposal (NEW!)
Forefront/NAP Readiness Proposals (NEW!)
Microsoft Online Services Migration Surveys, Proposals, and Reports (NEW!)
Power Savings Proposals (NEW!)
Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 Migration Proposals and Reports (NEW!)
Server Migration Reports and Proposals (Windows Server 2008 and “virtualized guests by hosts” reporting) (NEW!)
Server Consolidation Reports and Proposals (Virtual Server 2005 R2 and Hyper-V)
Desktop Security Assessment to determine if desktops have anti-virus and anti-malware programs installed and up-to-date, or if the Windows Firewall is turned on
Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 Hardware Assessment Reports and Proposal