MAPS 4.0 is coming, be prepared

By Mikael Nystrom on June 20, 2009 • ( Leave a comment )

Maps stands for “Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit” and it has been around for a long time, nevertheless, there are still folks out there who do not know about this little Microsoft “Gem”. So what does it do you may ask?

Well, whenever you fell that you need to upgrade, migrate you would almost certain make sure that you know as much as you can before you begin, and here comes MAPS. MAPS does do inventory, performance testing for specific task and in the end it will give you an excel spreadsheet for you to read and and a very nice word document with carts for the people with the money to read. The last part is kind of boring but to get the funding you need you really want to make this project with support from management and they like fancy word document with charts, trust me…

So MAPS 4.0 has a couple of new things compared to the “old” 3.2:

Windows 7 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
Windows Server 2008 R2 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
Virtualization Candidates Assessment for Hyper-V R2 Server Consolidation
Integration with the Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Calculator
Inventory of VMware Server Hosts and Guests
User Interface and Proposal Customization for Partner co-branding
Enhanced Usability and Improved Inventory Performance

Besides this it also handles the following scenarios like the old 3.2 could do:

Virtualization Candidates Assessment for Hyper-V Server Consolidation
Windows Vista Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
Windows Server 2008 Hardware and Device Compatibility Assessment
2007 Microsoft Office Readiness Assessment
SQL Server Instance Discovery
Desktop Security Assessment for Anti-virus and Anti-malware Programs Installation
Forefront Client Security/NAP Readiness Assessment
Online Services (Exchange Online) Assessment
App-V Infrastructure Readiness Assessment
Power Savings “Green IT” Calculator – (This is kind of fun to run with the economy situations today, try it)

So this tool make sense to use both for Microsoft partners, consultants and for customers. It is a great way of getting into a “known” state so that we know what options we have to improve the solution.

Enough said, time to for action. That means that you have to download it and test it, also since it is still en BETA, you still have the chance to give feedback to the team that is behind this (Yes, they really would like to have your opinion, trust me)