Desktop Deployment Planning Services for Windows Vista and Office 2007 Deployment

Jason Stiff — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:37:00 GMT

As a deployment specialist, in my opinion DDPS is one of the most useful yet underutilized Software Assurance benefits available to customers with SA. The numbers of customers entitled to the benefit but are either unaware if its impact, not aware of what it is or whether they are even entitled to it has surprised me to say the least. Any organization looking at deploying Windows Vista/XP or the Microsoft Office system 2007/2003 can't afford not to explore the benefits DDPS has to offer. One of the largest cost elements when managing a desktop infrastructure is labour costs. The traditional manual approach costs time, money and is by its nature resource intensive, so minimizing this impact is very important. Automating the processes can result in higher productivity, lower the cost of your infrastructure and help you realize the return on your software investment.

DDPS offers 1, 3, 5, 10 or 15 day engagements (dependant on your SA value). Based around the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007, it provides the guidance around the tools, technologies and best practice processes enabling businesses to plan, execute and achieve the most cost effective desktop environment. DDPS is delivered by certified deployment consultants from our one of our participating Microsoft services partners or Microsoft Consulting Services ensuring high quality, successful engagements.

If finding a better way to manage and deploy your desktop infrastructure is high on your priority list then see what DDPS can do for you at http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/sa/benefits/deployment.mspx

Partners

The Desktop Deployment Planning Service collateral, deployment tools and guidance has been updated for Windows Vista and 2007 Office. With the recent release of the associated Business Desktop Deployment 2007 Solution Accelerator, partners can continue to deliver high-quality, high-impact optimized desktop deployment engagements of our latest products.

The DDPS demo environment and engagement materials were released February 16th. This includes decks, documents, deliverables, VPCs and how-to documentation.

What's new in DDPS v2.0?

Updated Tools and Guidance

New process/design oriented structure (Plan, Build, Deploy, Operate)
BDD 2007 support
BDD Workbench, Windows Automated Installation Toolkit, System Image Manager, Windows PE 2.0, SMS 2003 SP2/3 etc.
Office 2007 and Windows Vista support (including Office Migration and Planning guidance)
Application Compatibility Toolkit v5

Updated Deployment Cost Calculator

2007 Office and Vista deployment scenarios
Updated localized costs and productivity metrics
Updated calculations for USMT, SoftGrid packaging and testing applications

Microsoft Desktop Optimization modules

SoftGrid, Asset Metrics, Forefront

Licensing and Activation modules

Windows Activation
Decision matrices for product and SKU selection

New Certification Exam

70-624

Updated Demo Environment

Up-to-date patches (as of production)
2007 Office and Vista
BDD 2007 (RTM) and WAIK tools
Lite-Touch, Zero-Touch, and Baremetal scenarios
SoftGrid

We have created updated collateral that includes the description, guidance and promotion of both content versions of DDPS. This updated starter kit, and all updated collateral is available on the DDPS Partner Portal.

Windows Deployment Stuff : Windows XP

Desktop Deployment Planning Services for Windows Vista and Office 2007 Deployment