I've mentioned this a few times in the past, but if you haven't already signed up for the Beta program, you might be interested to know that Microsoft has now released the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 3.1 to the Web. If you are assessing your IT infrastructure or planning to migrate to Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005 R2, SQL Server, Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft Office, and M I’ve mentioned this a few times in the past, but if you haven’t already signed up for the Beta program, you might be interested to know that Microsoft has now released the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 3.1 to the Web.If you are assessing your IT infrastructure or planning to migrate to Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005 R2, SQL Server, Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Application Virtualization, you should give this assessment and planning tool a try. Microsoft describes MAP 3.1 as a tool that makes it easy for you to assess your current IT infrastructure for a variety of technology migration projects. It includes the features previously provided with the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Solution Accelerator. MAP 3.1 is agentless, and it finds computers on a network and performs a detailed inventory of the computers using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), the Remote Registry Service, or the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). The latest version also gathers performance metrics from computers you are considering for consolidation. Using the performance metrics and a model virtual server host computer, you can generate reports that recommend placement of the physical servers in a virtual server environment. This is an important and difficult step when starting out with virtualization consolidation projects.The MAP 3.1 tool can be downloaded immediately on Microsoft’s Web site. And you can also go the MAP Web site to find out more information. Software Development