Microsoft has posted additional details on the SoftGrid Team Blog about the outstanding survey for participation in the SoftGrid 4.5 Technology Adoption Program (TAP). Here are some of the interesting plans for SoftGrid 4.5 (bold emphasis is mine):
- Enhanced client scalability: improvements to allow very large deployments and integration with ESD systems, such as System Center Configuration Manager
- Availability and maintainability: the most stable and reliable version of SoftGrid to date
- Security tightening: the first SoftGrid release to go through the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) andenhancements to support internet-facing scenarios
- Globalization and localization: support for both virtualizing non-English language applications and running the SoftGrid user interface in certain non-English languages
And here are the requirements of the TAP:
Requirements for participating in the SoftGrid 4.5 TAP:
- Executive (GM/VP or higher) sponsorship at the participating company
- Master TAP Agreement already signed or quickly signed before the program start date, with additional documents signed promptly as requested
- Active engagement with the product team with full participation in regularly scheduled surveys, feedback requests and conference calls; timely reporting of bugs and Design Change Requests (DCRs)
- Provide adequate resources for the duration of the program, preferably including a Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) or partner resource
- Participate in public relations activities relating to the experience with SoftGrid 4.5
- Have a Microsoft Premier support contract, including a Technical Account Manager (TAM) resource
- Commit to deploy in production the Beta and Release Candidate releases of the product within two weeks of their release.Note: The Beta release is expected in late October 2007 and the Release Candidate release is expected in mid March 2008. The following production deployment numbers are expected of each participant prior to the shipping of the product:
- At least 25 applications (SoftGrid packages) are virtualized and available for end users
- At least 2500 end users are actively using the product
Read the entire blog entry at the SoftGrid Team blog.
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