Solution Accelerators

Act faster. Go further.

Solution Accelerators from Microsoft are free, authoritative resources to proactively plan, integrate, and operate your systems. Designed in collaboration with industry experts and tested in real customer environments, Solution Accelerators give you prescriptive guidance and automation to achieve high-performance, cross-product IT infrastructure from both new and existing systems without reinventing the wheel. These resources focus on key concerns for companies of all sizes such as infrastructure and management, communication and collaboration, and security and compliance. Solution Accelerators serve the complex and evolving needs of your organization today and into the future.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Solution Accelerators

Use proven guidance and automated tools in these Solution Accelerators to assess your hardware and deploy and securely operate Windows Server 2008 R2.

Assess your existing environment with the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit

Inventory your existing environment and automatically generate detailed reports of hardware and device compatibility—without deploying software agents. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit also provides recommendations for server and application virtualization candidates using Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server, and Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid).

Secure your Windows Server infrastructure

Windows Server 2008 R2 is engineered from the ground up with security in mind, delivering an array of new and improved security technologies and features that provide a solid foundation for running and building your business. The Windows Server 2008 Security Guide can help you quickly configure, deploy, and manage the security settings in Windows Server 2008 across your organization.

Download the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide

Identify Server and Application Virtualization candidates

The Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) guides are currently available to support architectural planning for Microsoft’s virtualization technologies. IPD in conjunction with Microsoft Assessment and Planning identifies systems that can be consolidated with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V or Microsoft Hyper-V Server, as well as application virtualization candidates that can be virtualized with Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid).

Download the Infrastructure Planning and Design guides

Deploy and Manage resources quickly and reliably

Microsoft Deployment technologies can minimize or eliminate the interaction time required to install server operating systems. Interaction at the targeted computer can be minimized with the Lite Touch Installation (LTI) method, or it can be completely automated using the Zero Touch Installation (ZTI) method. Used together with the other Windows Server 2008 R2 Suite Solution Accelerators, you can eliminate guesswork and accelerate migration projects—reducing deployment times, improving reliability, improving security, and cutting costs for your organization.

Download Microsoft Deployment

Evaluate Windows Server 2008 R2

Start your tailored evaluation

Infrastructure Planning and Design Guide for DirectAccess Now Available

This new guide provides actionable, best practices guidance that you can leverage to more quickly design your DirectAccess infrastructure right the first time.

Solutions

Accelerate your deployment

Find a Windows Server 2008 R2 Partner