Microsoft has todayreleasedthe 6th version of its Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, or MAP 6.0 for short.
The tool is designed to help organizations move to the cloud, providing, as the name suggests, an assessment of the company’s current status, and a plan to allow them to move forward.
The element of MAP 6.0 that we found to be the most interesting is the product’s new capability to assess a company’s readiness for Office 365. This of course will provide a bridge for companies to move to Microsoft’s new cloud productivity solution.
Other new features in MAP 6.0, according to Microsoft, include: [T]he ability to identify workloads and estimate the infrastructure size and resources needed for both Windows Azure and Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track; enhanced VMware inventory; and Oracle schema discovery and reporting.
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While MAP 6.0 is in and of itself not a huge step forward for the cloud at Microsoft, it does reflect the company’s “all in on the cloud” mentality that wason sharp displayat the recent Worldwide Partner Conference. And that is why the Office 365 integration is perhaps more important than it seems at first: Microsoft is stretching itself to push all its products into the cloud, and Office 365 is one of the most public components of its cloud quiver; it must succeed, or the firm’s entire cloud strategy could be declared a flop, to disastrous PR consequence.
Therefore, with MAP 6.0, the company surely hopes that it can spur a greater demand for Office 365, alongside of more movement to the cloud by its enterprise customers. If it applies to you, you cangrab MAP 6.0 here.
Story byAlex Wilhelm
Alex Wilhelm is a San Francisco-based writer. You can find Alex on Twitter, and on Facebook. You can reach Alex via email at alex@thenextweb(show all)Alex Wilhelm is a San Francisco-based writer. You can find Alex onTwitter,and onFacebook.You can reach Alex via email atalex@thenextweb.com
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