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) and enhancements 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:
o At least 25 applications (SoftGrid packages) are virtualized and available for end users
o At least 2500 end users are actively using the product
Read the entire blog entry at the SoftGrid Team blog.
Shawn