Use this new version of the WVHA to determine if your hardware is ready to migrate to Vista and determine if you can migrate to Server 2008. It can 
also help you assess if you can virtualize servers by migrating them to Virtual Server or Server 2008’s Hyper-V and if you can safely migrate your applications into the virtualization world as well using Microsoft Application Virtualization.
Microsoft Assessment and Planning Overview
Introduction
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator (MAP) is the expanded version of the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment solution accelerator (WVHA). This new version of the network-wide assessment tool gives you not only the original capability of hardware inventory and assessment for desktops, but also expanded features including server migration recommendation with Windows Server 2008, virtualization workload placements for server consolidation with Hyper-V or Virtual Server 2005 R2, and application virtualization recommendations with Microsoft Application Virtualization.
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning tool is based on agent-less infrastructure scanning technology that makes it easier to set up the inventory without the requirement of installing any software agents on each machine being inventoried. In addition, this tool can generate localized desktop readiness reports in North American English, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Features Overview
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator performs three key functions, including hardware and device inventory, compatibility analysis, and readiness reporting.
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Figure 1. Three Main Functions of Microsoft Assessment and Planning
Secure and Agentless Inventory
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning tool provides secure, agent-less and network-wide inventory for up to 100,000 computers. It collects and organizes system resource 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.
It is capable of discovering and assessing computers and devices on a network that supports Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and those that run on the following operating systems:
- Windows Vista
- Windows XP® Professional
- Windows Server 2003™ or Windows Server 2003 R2
- Windows 2000 Professional or Windows 2000 Server
- Non-Windows (SNMP-enabled)
Comprehensive Hardware and Device Compatibility Analysis
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning provides detailed analysis on hardware and device compatibility for migration to Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office. Specifically, this tool analyzes each machine’s readiness for the migration by looking at the specific hardware and device compatibility requirements that Microsoft published.
For customers interested in server consolidation and virtualization technologies such as Hyper-V or Virtual Server 2005 R2, this tool helps gather performance metrics and generate server consolidation recommendation reports that identify the best candidates for server virtualization. It also provides assessment reports for SoftGrid.
In-Depth Readiness Reporting
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning tool generates custom reports containing both high-level and detailed assessment results for migration to many products. The results are provided in both Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word formats:
- Hardware assessment and upgrade recommendations for migration to Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office
- Server consolidation and workload placement recommendations using Hyper-V or Virtual Server 2005 R2
- Application virtualization candidate recommendation report for Microsoft Application Virtualization
- Inventory of Non-Windows or heterogeneous environment
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning tool can generate desktop readiness reports in seven languages including North American English, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese.
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