The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit team recently announced the new MAP Toolkit 8.5 is now available for download. The latest version adds new scenarios to help organizations assess their environments with greater agility and lower cost of delivery.
Included in the update are hardware and infrastructure readiness assessments to assist organizations in planning the deployment of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, preparing migration to Windows Azure Virtual Machines, ready environments for Office 2013 and Office 365, and track usage of Windows Server, Lync, SharePoint, and Exchange.
Key features and updates include:
Windows Volume Licensing scenario to help identify and assess license status of computers running Windows Vista SP1 and newer
For organizations licensing Windows, MAP Toolkit 8.5 helps customers manage investments in Software Assurance and deploy upgrades by detecting and reporting on the version of Windows running on client computers within the organization.
Usage Tracking for Lync 2013, SharePoint 2013 and Exchange 2013
With groundbreaking Lync, SharePoint and Exchange releases introduced this year, MAP 8.5 allows for more efficient usage tracking by leveraging new capabilities that achieve greater accuracy when collecting and reporting on end user access without having to parse log files.
Enhanced Virtual Machine Discovery
As organizations leverage server virtualization to optimize their resources, availability, and agility, the added virtual machine discovery and reporting capabilities of MAP Toolkit 8.5 help organizations manage assets and license compliance across virtualized environments.
New and improved user interface
An updated interface provides a more intuitive user experience allowing users to quickly navigate and view Scenario summaries on individual tiles, find details for each scenario with a checklist of steps to maximize results, and generate reports with just one-click.
View more features and benefits in Microsoft’s MAP library.
Next steps:
- Download MAP 8.5.
- Send your comments to the MAP Team.
- Learn more about MAP.
Looking for more online information on MAP? Visit the Microsoft Solutions Accelerators website and follow @MSSolutionAccel on Twitter. You can also find more information on our Microsoft Volume Licensing Blog posts containing the MAP Toolkit tag.