IBM Offers Server Planning Tool Using MAP 4.0

• By Kurt Mackie
• 09/29/09

IBM rolled out a free toolkit to help IT pros migrate their infrastructure to IBM products and use Microsoft's virtualization technology to consolidate servers.

The "Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit for IBM 1.0" was actually released late last month. It's designed to run on a Windows-based computer and can be downloaded here.

IBM developed the toolkit at its IBM Center for Microsoft Technologies, according to a Microsoft blog. The toolkit provides hardware information on IBM's System x and BladeCenter technologies, as well as Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization technology.

The toolkit incorporates the "Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0" setup package, which points to solutions in the Microsoft stack. It's designed for IT organizations that may lack systems management solutions. Microsoft's toolkit is available as a separate download here.

IBM's toolkit provides an estimate on how to use Microsoft's virtualization technology to consolidate server hardware.

"Consolidating workloads with Microsoft virtualization technologies on IBM System x and BladeCenter servers can help you increase the utilization of your hardware, thereby decreasing the number of servers required and helping you save money," the IBM toolkit release notes explain.

The toolkit will discover "all computers within Active Directory and workgroup environments," according to Microsoft's blog. It generates migration proposals based on the specific IT environment and calculates "potential savings" based on the Microsoft Virtualization ROI Calculator.

Last week, Microsoft updated two infrastructure planning and design guides to help with server virtualization in datacenters, including "Windows Server Virtualization" and "System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 R2 and VMM 2008 Guide." Microsoft updated the guides to "reflect the features and functionalities of Windows Server 2008 R2 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2," according to a Microsoft blog.