Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 5.5 Beta Now Available!

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The Microsoft Solution Accelerator team has recently announced the first public beta of the MAP 5.5 toolkit. I’ve been a big fan of this tool for quite some time now and this latest version adds a host of new options--with assessment for easier migration to Windows Azure and SQL Azure, heterogeneous database discovery (of MySQL, Oracle and Sybase instances) for SQL Server migration projects, Internet Explorer 8 upgrade assessment, and much more. Some of the new changes include the following:

  • Assess your environment for upgrade to Windows 7 and Windows Internet Explorer 8 (or the latest version) The MAP 5.5 Internet Explorer Upgrade Assessment inventories their environment and reports on deployed web browsers, Microsoft ActiveX controls, plug-ins and toolbars, and then generates a migration assessment report and proposal—information they need to more easily migrate to Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 (or the latest version).

  • Identify and analyse web application, and database readiness for migration to Windows Azure and SQL Azure - Customers can simplify their move to the cloud with the MAP 5.5 automated discovery and detailed inventory reporting on database and web application readiness for Windows Azure and SQL Azure. MAP identifies web applications, IIS servers, and SQL Server databases, analyses their performance characteristics, and estimates required cloud features such as 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 supported, MAP 5.5 helps customers accelerate migration to SQL Server with network inventory reporting for MySQL, Oracle, and Sybase instances.

  • Enhanced server consolidation assessments for Hyper-V - Enhanced server consolidation capabilities help customers save time and effort when creating virtualization assessments and proposals. Enhancements include:

    • Updated hardware libraries allowing you to select from the latest Intel and AMD processors.
    • Customized server selection for easy editing of assessment data.
    • Data collection and store every five minutes for more accurate reporting.
    • Better scalability and reliability, requiring less oversight of the data collection process.
    • Support for more machines.

    So if you haven’t already had a look at this beta make sure you Join the Beta on our Connect site. And for more about MAP in general make sure you check out the MAP Homepage.

    Technorati Tags: MAP,Solution Accelerators

Jeffa