14 DAY TRIAL // A new version of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit is now available for download, providing simplicity when it comes to assessing current IT infrastructure for various technology migration projects.
This tool was created to serve as a powerful inventory, assessment, and reporting utility that would simplify the planning process of any migration.
MAP comes from the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team and is meant to offer tested guidance and automated tools for companies who need to plan, securely deploy, and manage new Microsoft technologies.
The release notes of the new tool flavor include the following:
- A migration assessment for virtual machines deployed on VMWare vSphere platform to Microsoft Hyper-V platform
- The ability to gather performance metrics from Linux based operating systems for use in Server Consolidation scenarios
- Hardware and role migration assessments to support planning for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
- Assess Standard Client Access License (CAL) needs for on-premise deployments of Lync 2010
- Desktop virtualization planning for Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDI), Session Virtualization and Windows Thin PC
- New options to streamline SQL Server discovery
- The ability to report on Active Users and Devices discovered through Active Directory
The toolkit was made available for download with support for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, and Windows Vista Ultimate, and can be installed on a machine with at least a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and 2GB of RAM.
It also requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0, or .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. During the installation process, the MAP Toolkit will install SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB, Microsoft notes.
Existing installations of SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, or SQL Server 2012 can also be used if an instance called "MAPS" is created before running the MAP Toolkit installer.
Those who would like to learn some more info on what the tool is all about and on the system requirements and features it comes with should head over to Microsoft’s website for that.
The latest version of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit is available for download from Softpedia as well, via this link.