Moving forward in 2009, investments in IT infrastructures are bound to shrink, as businesses will attempt to fend off the global financial crisis. Microsoft indicated on more than one occasion that investing in the right technology solutions could offer a breath of fresh air for companies with now reduced IT budgets. In this regard, the Redmond company pointed business customers to virtualization, as a way to cut back costs.

The software giant is now even offering for download Virtualization Solution Accelerators, solutions set up to evaluate corporate infrastructures, and subsequently plan and design new elements, as well as enable the securing of server roles, and the deployment of virtualization technologies.

Through the Virtualization Solution Accelerators, the company is, in fact, offering for download the Assessment and Planning Toolkit, as well as the Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool.

“Solution Accelerators are free, scenario-based guides and automations designed to help IT Professionals who are proactively planning, deploying, and operating IT systems using Microsoft products and technologies. Solution Accelerator scenarios focus on security and compliance, management and infrastructure, and communication and collaboration,” the company stated.

The Virtualization Solution Accelerators are, by no means, the first solutions from Microsoft designed to help business customers accelerate the integration of the Redmond company's technologies into their infrastructure. The software giant offers a variety of virtualization solutions for both the Windows client and server operating systems, including Virtual PC 2007, Virtual Server, the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and the standalone Hyper-V.

“The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit – this automated tool is a network-wide inventory and assessment tool you can use to determine if your server and desktop infrastructure are ready for server and application virtualization. The Offline Virtual Machine Servicing Tool – this tool automates software updates for virtual machines stored in a library managed by Virtual Machine Manager. The download includes a Getting Started Guide and a Help file,” Microsoft added.

Microsoft Virtualization Solution Accelerators are available for download here.