Download Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit Frequently Asked

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I’m facing challenges with planning my IT infrastructure—can the Microsoft
Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit help?
A: Yes, MAP provides detailed discovery and inventory of heterogeneous IT
infrastructure to help make the following IT planning projects faster and easier:

Migration to Windows 7, Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft Office 2010, Windows
Server 2008 R2, and the Windows Azure platform

Planning for Hyper-V server virtualization

PC security assessment and migration planning for Microsoft Forefront Client
Security

SQL Server consolidation, and migration to SQL Server 2008 R2 from legacy SQL
Server database instances including SQL Server 2000, and heterogeneous
databases including MySQL, Oracle and Sybase

Assessment of current software usage and client access history for simplified
software asset management
Q: What is the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit?
A: The MAP Toolkit is an agentless, automated, multi-product planning and assessment
tool for quicker and easier desktop and server migrations and upgrades.
Learn more: www.microsoft.com/map
Q: How can the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit help me in my business?
MAP provides detailed readiness assessment reports, executive proposals with extensive
hardware and application information, and actionable recommendations for shortening
the time it takes to plan your migration. MAP also provides server utilization data for
Hyper-V server virtualization planning, identifying server placements, and performing
virtualization candidate assessments, including ROI analysis for server consolidation with
Hyper-V.
Q: What’s new in the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.5?
A: New features added to the latest MAP v5.5 release include the following:
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
Assess your environment for migration to Windows 7 and Windows Internet
Explorer 8 (or the latest version). Are you looking for a tool to simplify your
organization's migration to Windows 7 and Windows Internet Explorer 8—and, in
turn, benefit from improved desktop security, reliability and manageability? The MAP
5.5 Internet Explorer migration assessment inventories your environment and reports
on deployed web browsers, Microsoft ActiveX controls, and add-ons, and then
generates a migration assessment report and proposal—information you need to
more easily migrate to Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 (or the latest version).

Identify and analyze web application and database readiness for migration to
the Windows Azure platform. Simplify your move to the cloud with the MAP 5.5
automated discovery and detailed inventory reporting on web application and
database readiness for the Windows Azure platform. MAP identifies web applications,
IIS servers, and SQL Server databases, analyzes their performance characteristics, and
estimates resources required such as the number of Windows Azure compute
instances, number of SQL Azure databases, bandwidth usage, and storage.

Discover heterogeneous database instances for migration to SQL Server. Now
with heterogeneous database inventory and reporting capability, MAP 5.5 helps you
accelerate migration to SQL Server from MySQL, Oracle, and Sybase instances.

Enhanced server consolidation assessments for Hyper-V.
Enhanced server consolidation capabilities help save time and effort when creating
virtualization assessments and proposals. Enhancements include:
o
Updated hardware libraries, allowing you to select from the latest Intel and
AMD processors for more accurate server consolidation placements.
o
Data collection and store every five minutes for more accurate reporting and
analysis.
o
Greater scalability and reliability, requiring less effort and oversight of the
data collection process.
o
Significant usability enhancements, enabling easier configuration of the server
consolidation planning process.
Q: What resources are available to help me learn how to use the Microsoft Assessment
and Planning Toolkit?
A: Visit the Learning Resources for Solution Accelerators site to access featured
resources for MAP and other Solution Accelerators. This collection of getting started
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guides, scripted demos, presentation decks, video tutorials, and customizable data
sheets will help you get the most out of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit.
Learn more: www.microsoft.com/satresource
Q: Where do I go to download the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, and how
much does it cost?
A: Solution Accelerators are freely available and fully-supported from Microsoft.
Download the MAP Toolkit: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=158988; or visit the
Microsoft Download Center for a complete list of supporting items:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=111000.
Q: Has the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit been tested, and is it supported?
A: All Solution Accelerators are fully tested and supported by Microsoft.
Q: Is the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit available in other languages?
A: Solution Accelerators are currently available only in English. If you’d like to see
Solution Accelerators in other languages, please email [email protected].
Q: Where can I ask questions and give my feedback on the Microsoft Assessment and
Planning Toolkit?
A: Questions and feedback are welcomed and appreciated at [email protected].
Q: What other Solution Accelerators are available to help me?
A: MAP is just one of the tools provided by the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team.
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and
Security Compliance Manager provide tested guidance and automated tools to help you
plan, securely deploy, and manage new Microsoft technologies—easier, faster, and at
less cost.
Learn more: www.microsoft.com/solutionaccelerators
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