14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has made available a range of new resources designed to streamline the deployment of Windows 7 for business customers. According to Erwin Visser, director Business-Marketing Organization, Microsoft, businesses around the world emphasized the necessity for a comprehensive and strategic plan set up to help them roll out technology within their organizations. Another demand expressed involved a request for a hands-on model permitting the tangible evaluation of the business value brought on by the adoption of new technology.
The new offerings from the Redmond company and its partners will help business users not only test-drive new technologies in their environments, but also evaluate business value and ultimately put together a deployment plan. The new resources are set up to simplify uptake of products including Windows 7 Enterprise, Microsoft App-V, Internet Explorer 8 and Office 2010 Professional Plus.
Visser even offered an “overview:
“- Proof of Concept Jumpstart: Start evaluating these technologies and assess the readiness of your desktop infrastructure with the help of experienced deployment experts. From creating an economic justification of the project to application compatibility assessment, image engineering and PoC deployment, deployment experts from Microsoft Services and Microsoft Partners are specifically trained for this program and are standing by to help you.
“- Self-Service PoC Jumpstart Kit: What if I just want to deploy myself or just ‘kick the tires?’ The Self-Service PoC Jumpstart Kit could be the right kit for you. This kit offers a virtual hard disk that can be installed to a server for the deployment set up. With many deployment tools like Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit, Office Environment Assessment Tool and more already pre-configured, you can save hours or days and start building your Proof of Concept machines right away.
“- Production Pilot Jumpstart: Want to start a more aggressive rollout? The same deployment experts have been specially trained and can assist you with deploying 1,000 PCs in a production pilot in your environment through a 10-week fixed price engagement.”
Visser underlines the fact that a Proof of Concept can be key to streamlining migration to Windows 7 Enterprise or Office 2010 Professional Plus for a variety of organizations, whether their environments are running 1,000 PCs or 100,000 PCs. Recently, Microsoft revealed that Intel upgraded in excess of 100,000 seats to Windows 7, and described in a case study the extensive testing that the CPU maker had done with the operating system. The new deployment resources are bound to help businesses embrace the latest technologies from Microsoft.
Microsoft Windows 7 90-Day Eval VHD is available for download here.
Another Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here.
Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 100-Screenshot Gallery