Windows Vista Team Blog : IT Professionals, Deployment

Deployment gets easier with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008

Jeremy — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:18:00 GMT

We've reached a pivotal moment in time, the release to Web of Windows Vista SP1 on Tuesday and, to complete the picture, today we released Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008, the latest generation of the Microsoft Solution Accelerators designed to simplify and ease your deployment experience.

There are a lot of things to consider when deploying a new OS and, if your organization has 50 desktops or more, MDT is designed to help you navigate the potentially complex desktop environment. Our goal is to save you lots of time and effort in planning and building out a standard desktop experience all the way to rolling OS images out into production.

Don't worry, this is not something unproven and new -- just fewer than 1 million of you across industries have been active users of MDT's predecessor, Business Desktop Deployment (BDD). Past customers include companies like Unilever, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and Fred Weber, who reduced their deployment costs from $300 to $35 per PC.

We have been listening to your feedback and augmenting the solution to ensure that the best of real world best practices are infused within the tool.

So what's changed with MDT?

In addition to the project, process and team guidance that has traditionally existed, the major thing that we worked on for this release is incremental guidance to progressively enable your deployment process. Examples include:

New checklist and wizard-driven user interface
Quick start guides that familiarize you quickly with the tools and deployment process

There are also more ways to automate deployment, including Zero Touch installation; new task sequencing for more flexible and simplified configuration; and new Lite Touch installation support for multicasting with Windows Deployment Services to help ease network load.

In fact, if you are planning to deploy Windows Server 2008 with Windows Vista concurrently, there are major advantages to using MDT. Check out Continental Airlines, who rolled out both Windows Server and Windows Vista. The ability to build images and deploy desktops and servers (including Windows Server 2008), was actually a key driver for our name change from BDD.

You can download MDT 2008 today. For more information, go to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=113979 or contact a Desktop Deployment Planning Services specialist. Also see the TechNet Springboard for the Five ways that Windows Vista deployment just got easier.

Oh and, still using BDD 2007? Don't worry, we didn't forget about you either. An update for BDD 2007 to support SP1 imaging and deployment is also available from here.

Microsoft Readying Customers with New Assessment and Deployment Tool for the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 Launch!

Baldwin Ng — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:43:00 GMT

Hello IT Pros!

February 27 is a big day. Windows Server 2008 will be officially launching in Los Angeles with Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, kicking off in just a few hours.

In support of this very important technology milestone as well as the Windows Vista SP1 release, the Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team has just released the third-generation of the agent-less infrastructure assessment platform called Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator 3.0 (or simply MAP). Through the use of remote WMI calls and secure inventory engines, the MAP tool enables you to quickly inventory a wide variety of networks (AD-managed, IP ranges, and workgroups), securely assess IT environments of servers, desktops, applications and devices, and auto-generate specific and actionable reports and proposal documents in a matter of hours.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE BLOG POST...

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD MICROSOFT ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING (RTM BITS)

Thank you,

Baldwin Ng (Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Assessment and Planning)

Springboard Series: Windows Vista Deployment & Adoption Roundtable

Nick White — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:38:00 GMT

[Update 7 March 12:28pm PST] in case you missed Mark at the live event, you can access the on-demand video by visiting http://ms.istreamplanet.com/events or via the Springboard Online site.

On Wednesday March 5th, Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich will be hosting a virtual roundtable session live over the Internet on Windows Vista Deployment and Adoption. Joining Mark on the panel for the roundtable will be independent industry experts and IT Professionals from organizations that have already deployed Windows Vista as well as Microsoft MVPs. This roundtable offers IT Professionals worldwide an opportunity to ask questions about deploying Windows Vista.

To attend the event, just visit http://ms.istreamplanet.com/events at 9:00am Pacific Time on March 5th. You will be able to ask your questions live during the event. You are also welcome to submit your questions in advance by sending them to vrtable@microsoft.com between now and when the event starts. The panel will be 60 minutes long and try to answer as many questions as possible within that timeframe. The event will also be available on-demand afterwards as well.

For additional guidance, resources, tools, and straight-talk articles to help address your Windows Vista adoption questions, visit the Springboard Series for Windows Vista.