[Microsoft Solution Accelerators] Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 8.5 Beta available

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 8.5 Beta is available.

Accelerate your Windows Server 2012 migration with MAP 8.5 Beta!

Accelerate your Windows Server 2012 migration with Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 8.5. This latest version of MAP adds new scenarios to help plan your environment with agility and focus while lowering the cost of delivering IT. Included in MAP 8.5 are hardware and infrastructure readiness assessments to assist you in planning the deployment of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, preparing your migration to Windows Azure Virtual Machines, readying your environment for Office 2013 and Office 365, and tracking your usage of Windows Server, Lync, SharePoint, and Exchange.

Key features and benefits of MAP 8.5 Beta help you:

• Newly designed user interface makes it easier to find and use the right MAP scenario for the task at hand.
• Usage tracking scenarios for Lync, SharePoint and Exchange have been updated to include the latest versions.
• Advances in virtual machine discovery offer improved VM inventory results.
• New Windows Volume Licensing scenario helps identify the licensing status of your desktop computers. 

Key features and benefits in more detail:

Newly designed user interface

The MAP Toolkit 8.5 Beta features a newly designed user interface which provides a more intuitive user experience. Scenarios have been organized into Scenario Groups to allow quick navigation and display at-a-glance summaries on individual scenario tiles. Details for each scenario can be found in the Scenario Detail Pages along with a checklist of steps needed to maximize your results and enable one-click report generation.

Lync 2013, SharePoint 2013, and Exchange 2013 Usage Tracking Support

Groundbreaking new releases of Lync, SharePoint, and Exchange have been brought to market this year. These products enable IT organizations and their end users greater efficiency, productivity and flexibility than ever before. With the release of the MAP Toolkit 8.5 Beta, the usage tracking scenarios within MAP have been updated to leverage new usage tracking capabilities provided within Lync, SharePoint, and Exchange resulting in less administrative effort and greater accuracy to collect and report on end user access to these servers.

Enhanced Virtual Machine discovery

Server virtualization has become the standard method for optimizing an organization's resource utilization, availability, and agility. The MAP Toolkit 8.5 Beta assists in the effort to virtualize with added discoverability of virtual machines for software asset location and reporting to facilitate license compliance for highly virtualized environments. Additionally, the MAP Toolkit now includes enhanced inventory reports which detail the virtual machines discovered, as well as the total number of virtual machines running on each host.

Windows Volume Licensing scenario helps to Identify license status of computers running Windows Vista SP1 and newer

Microsoft Volume Licensing gives you flexible, cost-effective access to the Microsoft products and services that your business is built upon. The MAP Toolkit 8.5 Beta provides the ability to detect and report on the volume license status of client computers in your enterprise so you can rest assured that you are in full compliance with your volume license agreement. 

The tool is available here : Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 8.5 Beta