Dynamic Data Center Toolkit

• Forward facing environment provisioning app. Choose server parameters; cores, memory, disk, domain membership, etc. User can request and provision entire environments, not just VM’s

I understand where they are going with this offering, but it seems more geared for license compliance than for actual network management. That is fine and of some use, but it’s probably 7th or 8th on the priority list. I would like to see them focus more on deployment and education tools. That is a stronger pain-point for us.

Assessment and Planning Toolkit

• CAL tracking
• Server consolidation; Evaluate the server and it’s load and make recommendations for migration to virtual.
• http://www.microsoft.com/MAP

More licensing compliance stuff, but there may be more here. The ability to evaluate servers and workloads with an eye towards virtualization is a pretty nifty idea. I wonder if it requires an agent and how intrusive it is?

Optimized Desktop

• Separating and decoupling items such as hardware, OS, applications and data. Treating each of them individually.
• Direct Access – Accessing corporate network resources without the need for a VPN. Requires Win7 clients, Server 2008 R2 on the backend, plus a gateway product.
• Problem Steps Recorder – Pretty nifty inclusion. Allows a user to record the steps to reproduce a problem.

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP)

• Several programs designed to increase the efficiency of desktop deployment and management
• Lots of nice items, but the most useful (APP-V and MED-V) will only work with a local server. That creates some real challenges in a distributed environment like ours. Concepts are great though.

Office 2010

• Conversation view
• Ignore feature for never-ending threads
• QuickStep allows you to create “macros” for commonly used email functions
• Groove is dead, long live Groove. Renamed “SharePoint Workspace”; Offline access to SharePoint
• “Gemini” data components; SQL 2010 components?
• PowerPoint 2010 has really cool broadcast feature that allows you to share a presentation real time with users and devices inside and outside the network, even on mobile phones!
• Deployment Planning Services (Windows deployment, Exchange and SharePoint)
• Mailtips. Predefined workflows for messages.