http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb977556.aspx?SA_CE=VIR-MAP-NEWSLTR-TNFLSHGLBL-20080917

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit Solution Accelerator

Overview

The
Microsoft® Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) makes it easy for you
to assess your current IT infrastructure and determine the right
Microsoft technologies for your IT needs.

MAP is a powerful
inventory, assessment, and reporting tool that can securely run in
small or large IT environments without requiring the installation of
agent software on any computers or devices. The data and analysis
provided by this Solution Accelerator can significantly simplify the
planning process for migrating to Windows Vista®, Microsoft Office
2007, Windows Server® 2008, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Virtual Server
2005 R2, SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft Application Virtualization
(formerly SoftGrid).

MAP expands upon the assessment features
included in the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Solution Accelerator.
These features include Windows Vista assessment, Microsoft Office 2007
assessment, and non-Windows device inventory, using the Simple Network
Management Protocol (SNMP). Reports for these assessment scenarios are
localized in French, German, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese,
and Spanish.

Download the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

Feature Overview

The
Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) performs three key
functions; hardware inventory, compatibility analysis, and readiness
reporting.

 

Figure 1. Three Key Functions of Microsoft Assessment and Planning

Secure and Agentless Inventory

The
Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) provides secure,
agent-less and network-wide inventory that scales from small business
to large enterprises. It collects and organizes system resources and
device information from a single networked computer. Assessment tools
often require users to first deploy software agents on all computers to
be inventoried, but this tool does not. MAP uses technologies already
available in your IT environment to perform inventory and assessments.
These technologies include Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI),
the Remote Registry Service, SNMP, Active Directory Domain Services,
and the Computer Browser service. Assessments can be completed on the
following Windows platforms:

• Windows Vista
• Windows XP® Professional
• Windows Server 2003™ or Windows Server 2003 R2
• Windows 2000 Professional or Windows 2000 Server
• Windows Server 2008

Comprehensive Data Analysis

The
Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) performs a detailed
analysis of hardware and device compatibility for migration to Windows
Server 2008, Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Application
Virtualization, and Windows Vista. The hardware assessment looks at the
installed hardware and determines if migration is recommended. If it is
not recommended then the reports tell you why it is not.

In
addition, MAP has expanded its capabilities into assessment areas of
Hyper-V server virtualization, desktop security, and SQL Server 2008
migration.

Device assessment looks at the devices installed on a
computer and reports availability of drivers for those devices. Device
assessment is provided for both Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista
migration scenarios.

For customers interested in server
consolidation and virtualization through technologies such as Hyper-V
or Virtual Server 2005 R2, this tool helps to gather performance
metrics and generate server consolidation recommendations that identify
the candidates for server virtualization and how the physical servers
might be placed in a virtualized environment.

In-Depth Readiness Reporting

The
Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) generates reports
containing both summary and detailed assessment results for each
migration scenario. The results are provided in both Microsoft Excel
and Microsoft Word documents. Reports are generated for the following
scenarios:

·         Identification
of currently installed Windows Client operating systems, their
hardware, and recommendations for migration to Windows Vista. This tool
also reports if desktops have anti-virus and anti-malware programs
installed or if the Windows Firewall is turned on.

• Identification
  of currently installed Windows Server operating systems, their
  hardware, and recommendations for migration to Windows Server 2008
  (including a report detailing currently installed server roles and SQL
  servers).
• Identification of currently installed Microsoft Office software and recommendations for migration to Microsoft Office 2007.
• Detailed assessment and reporting of server utilization gathered using the Performance Metrics Wizard.
• Recommendations for server consolidation and virtual machine placement using Hyper-V or Virtual Server 2005 R2.
• Assessment
  of client machines, servers, and the technology environment for the
  implementation of Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly
  SoftGrid).  
• Reporting of SNMP-enabled devices found in the environment during inventory.

Note  
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP) will generate
localized reports for Windows Vista migration, Office 2007 migration,
and non-Windows devices if the Display zLanguage, configured on the
computer generating the reports is set to German, French, Japanese,
Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese.