An Assessment is not a sales call.  It is an opportunity for Allin and Microsoft to gain objective insight to the manageability of your technology infrastructure, the productivity of your support team, and the security of your critical business systems.  It is a one-half to one-day onsite session facilitated by Allin, who will conduct an interactive session with key members of your organization that are interested in better understanding their current Virtualization profile and any potential efficiencies that could be obtained through a combination of technologies, best practices and training.  This assessment can then be used to help balance the complexity and costs of managing and securing a technology infrastructure without restricting future growth, connectivity or collaboration requirements.

After conducting the onsite session, Allin will deliver a report with findings and recommendations to help you get the most of your technology investment.  The Assessment will help you identify industry best practices that may be appropriate for your organization, target day-to-day tasks that could be executed more effectively and efficiently, resolve incidents more quickly and accurately, evaluate relevant software tools and applications that could reduce your computing total cost of ownership, and help you in developing a long-term Virtualization and data archiving plan that meets your specific business needs.  This service is targeted at any organization relying on a Microsoft-based network or application platform.

The assessment will be customized to your organization’s specific needs, but will include many of the following topics:

Would you benefit from the Virtualization Assessment?
Are any of these questions relevant to your firm?

• Do you have several test and development environments? 
• Do you still have legacy applications on older Operating Systems that need a hardware refresh, but require the legacy Operating System?
• Are you constantly rebuilding test servers? 
• Do you have issues finding space and power for new servers, or lack of adequate cooling in your datacenter?
• Do you have business continuity requirements creating the need for off-site facilities? 
• Do you need to be able to simulate multiple systems for test, but don’t have the required hardware?

As automated business processes and virtual teams rely more and more on your network infrastructure and the integrity of your data, it is increasingly more important for you to secure and manage your entire computing environment now and develop the best practices to manage growth while minimizing the impact of lager datacenters.

Allin’s Virtualization Assessment will provide you with guidance on how to:

• Secure your company’s assets - Develop and sustain a competitive advantage through a superior IT infrastructure, and protect your company’s vital corporate information assets from loss of availability
• Maximize your IT investment - Decrease the costs associated with server/datacenter operations and support of your IT infrastructure using integrated solutions, proven products, and expert guidance/best practices
• Develop best practices - Reduce the administrative overhead for managing and growing your datacenter environment by utilizing integrated solutions that are architected and implemented using proven methodologies and best practices

What are the deliverables of the Assessment?
Allin will present our written report to your organization that will summarize the findings of the Assessment, including:

• A description of your existing datacenter profile
• An outline of areas for greatest ROI and suggestions for optimizing your operational environment and reducing your total cost of ownership of Microsoft and other technologies
• Positioning of Microsoft technologies that will help address specific needs and pains uncovered in the Assessment
• A summary of the benefits your organization will realize with technology improvements and next step recommendations for improved security and reliability
• A list of the steps needed to implement these technologies to allow your company to move forward with creating a detailed implementation plan

What investments are required?
Only the time of relevant personnel will be needed during the Assessment.  Before the onsite survey, senior executives in your organization are expected to have approved the engagement.  Although encouraged to participate in these assessments, it is not necessary that these executives be involved in the assessment. 
We expect that you will need to dedicate several knowledgeable system experts proficient in the management and support of your operational environment.  A senior IT member who is knowledgeable of your current management and support strategy should also be present.  The participants should be available for the duration of the on-site visit.

Cost
Allin and Microsoft will fund this Assessment, at no cost to you.  Contact your Allin Account Manager!