Q. What are the Microsoft Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) guides?

A. Microsoft's IPD site details the IPD guides, which are mainly focused around Windows Server 2008 and virtualization.

The guides are broken down into a Word document and a PowerPoint presentation, which walk you through the process of planning and deployment of the focused technology. Each of the guides provides a definition of the technical decision flow through the planning process, a list of decisions to be made, and the commonly available options and considerations and how these considerations and options relate to the business in terms of cost and complexity. Each guide also shows you how to ensure that you’ve gathered all the right business information to ensure the technical solution meets all requirements.

Currently guides are available for