We all Need a Little Help and Guidance Sometimes….

16 December 2009 by James Crawshaw

Something I’ve never blogged on but often take advantage of are the Microsoft Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guides.

A quick look at what they cover…..

“Guidance that aims to clarify and streamline the planning and design process for Microsoft® infrastructure technologies.”

• Defines decision flow
• Describes decisions to be made
• Relates decisions and options for the business
• Frames additional questions for business understanding

Some of the technologies they are currently published for…

IPD Guides for Virtualization

• Windows Server Virtualization (Hyper-V)
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and R2 (updated)
• Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 (App-V)
• Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V)
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services NEW!

IPD Guides for Windows Server

• Windows Server Virtualization Guide
• Internet Information Services Guide
• File Services Guide
• Active Directory Domain Services Guide
• DirectAccess NEW! 

IPD Guides for System Center

• System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 SP1
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and R2 (updated)
• System Center Operations Manager 2007(updated)
• System Center Configuration Manager 2007 

IPD Guides for SQL Server

• IPD Guide for Microsoft SQL Server 2008

shows you that if you need some advice as to how to lay out an infrastructure for, say, Remote Desktop Services (RDS) – replaced Terminal Services in Q3 2009) deployment – a great place to go for information is the RDS IPD guide site.

Of course, here at UKFast we have a very close working relationship with Microsoft which enables us to leverage both the information contained within these guides plus our in house expertise and Microsoft consultancy.  All of this allows us to be expert trusted advisors and implementers to our customers.

Happy Xmas.

MC