Win Zune HDs via Infrastructure Planning and Design Contest

Microsoft is ready to award customers and partners that make use of the free planning, design and deployment resources that it has made available for free to streamline the adoption of its software products. Specifically, the software giant is looking for companies that have leveraged, or will leverage the Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Series in order to streamline the deployment of various products including Windows Server 2008 R2, into their IT environments. The rewards themselves are not that consistent, just Zune HD devices, but of course that the free access to the planning, design and deployment resources is in fact the “main prize.”

Baldwin Ng (Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit + Virtualization Solution Accelerators) revealed that it would be the IPD Team to choose the winners that would receive Zune HD music players. NG did not indicate just how many deployment stories focused on the Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Series would be awarded with a Zune HD device.

“Zune HD Contest Rules: Best candidates will be chosen based on the size of deployment (e.g. number of PCs or servers deployed), in-depth use of the IPD guidance for the specific technology, and benefits of the technology deployed to the organization. Entries must be submitted by a Microsoft customer or partner. Government employees and Microsoft employees are not eligible for this contest. All entries must be submitted via e-mail to IPDFDBK at microsoft.com by November 9, 2009 5pm Pacific Time,” Ng stated.

IT pros in companies with large infrastructures can turn to the Microsoft Infrastructure Planning and Design Series in order to get Microsoft’s architectural insight and guidance designed to support deployment scenarios for technologies including Windows Server 2008 R2, App-V, MED-V, DirectAccess, Hyper-V virtualization, System Center, SQL Server 2008, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, etc.

“The IPD guides help clarify and streamline design processes for Microsoft infrastructure technologies, with each guide addressing a unique infrastructure technology or scenario,” Ng added. “A set of authoritative guidance from Microsoft to help you clarify Infrastructure Planning and Design guide series gives you architectural guidance for Microsoft infrastructure products. The IPD guides help clarify and streamline design processes for Microsoft infrastructure technologies, with each guide addressing a unique infrastructure technology or scenario.”