Simplify cloud migration planning with MAP Toolkit 6.5

The Solution Accelerators team is pleased to announce the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 6.5 is now available for download.

The journey to the cloud is now smoother than ever with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 6.5. The MAP Toolkit's new capabilities help users to securely assess heterogeneous IT environments while enabling the evaluation of workloads for migration to Microsoft's private and public cloud platforms. Consolidate existing server workloads using the updated Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track capacity planning feature. The Database Consolidation Appliance Assessment allows you to simplify SQL Server migration planning for the private cloud. The revamped Azure Migration feature in MAP 6.5 provides more in-depth analysis of the suitability of migrating on-premises applications to the Windows Azure platform. Additional new features in MAP 6.5 include the discovery of active Windows devices, Software Usage Tracking for Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP), and the discovery of Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers with HP-UX to assist in the planning of migration to SQL Server.

Accelerate planning for the private cloud with Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Onboarding.
Planning your private cloud just got easier. Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Onboarding, an updated assessment available with MAP 6.5, provides consolidation guidance and validated configurations with preconfigured Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Infrastructures including computing power, network, and storage architectures. This updated feature provides greater flexibility in private cloud migration planning by allowing users to customize computer configurations and shared resources to target consolidation of both physical and virtual workloads. Get a quick analysis of server consolidation on Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track Infrastructures to help accelerate your planning of physical to virtual ("P2V") migration to Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track.

Identify migration opportunities with heterogeneous server environment inventory.
MAP has expanded its heterogeneous server environment inventory to include VMware Server, VMware vSphere, and VMware vCenter. Inventory and reporting on the number of servers and guests deployed and managed by VMware infrastructure helps you identify migration opportunities and accelerates the migration planning process. SQL Server, SharePoint Server and Exchange Server run better on Hyper-V, so MAP 6.5 has the added capability of identifying Microsoft workloads deployed on VMware guests.

Simplify consolidation of SQL Server to the Database Consolidation Appliance
MAP 6.5 simplifies SQL Server consolidation planning and provides recommendations for migration to the Database Consolidation Appliance. Using MAP, you can measure the current database workloads, estimate the capacity required for migrating to Database Consolidation Appliance, and take the next steps in the process. The Database Consolidation Appliance provides better agility through a fully elastic database infrastructure and allows you to consolidate thousands of SQL Server instances into a single appliance resulting in exceptional operational cost savings.

Assess your software usage and evaluate your licensing needs.
The enhanced Software Usage Tracking feature in MAP 6.5 simplifies and reduces time and administrative costs associated with software license management and compliance by adding additional product coverage, as well as the ability to identify active devices. Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) usage tracking measures server and client usage for the FEP product, a recent addition to the Microsoft Core Client Access License (CAL) Suite. In addition to FEP, the Software Usage Tracking feature provides consistent software usage reports for key Microsoft server products (Windows Server, SharePoint Server, System Center Configuration Manager, Exchange Server, and SQL Server). With the addition of the new Active Devices scenario, organizations can now easily identify and report Windows devices that are active on the network. This information is particularly useful in Enterprise Agreement scenarios.

Discover Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers for migration to SQL Server.
MAP 6.5 adds to the heterogeneous database inventory and reporting capability with the discovery of Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers with HP-UX. The MAP Toolkit can help determine total cost of ownership for maintaining Oracle and the potential return on investment (ROI) from switching to SQL Server. MAP also allows users to discover, plan, and migrate to SQL Server. Along with reporting of the size and use of each schema, MAP provides an estimate of the complexity of migration and suggests candidates for migration to SQL Server. This heterogeneous database inventory and reporting capability will help you accelerate migration to SQL Server from MySQL, Oracle, and Sybase databases.

Assess your client environment for Office 365 readiness.
MAP 6.5 helps make your planning process easier and faster for business productivity solutions. MAP 6.5 includes an Office 365 client assessment that evaluates the compatibility of the Office suite software deployed in your environment. This assessment helps you quickly pinpoint the clients ready for upgrade to Office 365. The tool obtains machine-level details to determine the upgrade readiness and quickly identifies the compatibility of current Office suite software installed with Office 365.

Determine readiness for migration to Windows 7 and Windows Internet Explorer 9.
Simplify your organization's migration to Windows 7 and Windows Internet Explorer 9 with MAP 6.5. The MAP Internet Explorer migration assessment-now updated for Internet Explorer 9 migration-inventories your environment and reports on deployed web browsers, Microsoft ActiveX controls, and add-ons, and then generates a migration assessment report and proposal for easier migration to Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9.

Accelerate planning and migration with new UI and usability updates in MAP 6.5.
MAP 6.5 offers an improved user experience to simplify and accelerate your planning needs. The improved MAP user interface streamlines the assessment and planning process by clearly identifying the sequence of steps that users must perform to successfully complete the migration planning process.

Download the MAP Toolkit 6.5.