The gold bits of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 are still far away from general availability, but this does not mean that Microsoft is not tending to the migration to the latest Windows client plus its first service pack. If you are an end user of Vista, the situation is rather clear, the first wave of Vista SP1 will be offered starting in mid-March 2008, offering the English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese language versions of the service pack through Microsoft Update, Windows Update and the Download Center, with the remaining variants planned for delivery in April. But when it comes down to what Microsoft is referring to as its technical customers, namely OEM partners, Volume License clients, MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers, as well as the 15,000 Beta testers, access to Vista SP1 RTM has already been granted.

These specific technical customers are what Microsoft has in mind when it comes down to tending to the Windows Vista SP1 OS migration. In this context, Baldwin Ng, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Assessment and Planning, and Virtualization Solution Accelerators, announced the availability of Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator 3.0, the company's infrastructure assessment platform, now in its third generation. MAP 3.0 is designed to scan, analyze and inventory complex IT environments via network connections, and to evaluate machines from desktops to servers for their readiness for Windows Vista SP1, Windows Server 2008 and the Office 2007 System.

"Expanding from the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment code base, this new tool now enables users to generate the assessment reports and proposals for server and desktop OS migration as well as virtualization projects. For Windows Vista SP1 OS migration - hardware and device compatibility, applications inventory, BIOS compatibility, and upgrade recommendations. For Office 2007 assessment on existing desktops to check for hardware and device compatibility. Windows Server 2008 migration - hardware and device compatibility, applications inventory, roles inventory, and upgrade recommendations. For Server Virtualization candidacy report for consolidation of the datacenter (currently covers Virtual Server 2005 R2 - will support Hyper-V in the near future). And in terms of Microsoft Application Virtualization - desktop and server readiness for Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid)," Baldwin Ng explained.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator 3.0 is available for download here.