And I am fully recovered.  In case you have never been to TechEd, it is one of the premiere learning events in the technical world.  And an exercise in:

• “Drinking from the fire hose”, so to speak – the sheer volume of knowledge shared at TechEd is, at times, overwhelming!
• Walking great distances (comfortable shoes are a must!).
• Meeting TONS of very, very, very, smart attendees.
• Becoming friends with TONS of very, very, very, smart attendees.

TechEd 2007 was in Orlando, Florida this year, at the Orange County Convention Center.  The OCCC is one of the largest convention centers in the world, and if you attended TechEd this year, you felt every foot of it.  J  We were lucky to have wonderful weather this year as well, punctuated with some typical afternoon Florida rainfall.

Our product team had a WONDERFUL debut at our first TechEd.  Sessions were full, and the Technical Learning Centre (TLC) area sessions were standing room only.  Our Hands on Labs got great satisfaction scores – we’re really glad you liked them. 

Thanks to everyone for stopping by and asking very thoughtful and interesting questions.  One of the best things about TechEd is the personal interaction we get to have with customers.  We love to hear from you, and TechEd is a great arena for one on one interaction with product teams.  We loved the excitement and interest you showed when stopping by the booth.

Some frequently occurring quick questions:

• So what is this whole Forefront thing?  Forefront is our comprehensive line of business security products.  More information?  See http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/default.mspx
• What is Forefront Client Security?  FCS is the Microsoft solution for antimalware defense.
• Is this the same thing as One Care?   Not really.  FCS uses the same antimalware engine as One Care, but FCS adds a centrally managed antimalware solution with security state assessment technology and enterprise level reporting.
• Is Client Security a centrally managed solution?   YES
• How do I get the software on my client computers?   An extremely easy way is to create a Client Security policy, using the Client Security Management console, and then deploy it to your target clients.  Once they receive the policy, they will download and install the Client Security agent from WSUS.
• What type of clients can I put this on?   Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2, and Windows Vista Business, Ultimate or Enterprise.  x64 editions of Windows XP and Vista are supported.
• When will I be able to get FCS?   July 1^st, but you can download the evaluation now! (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/eval/fcs/default.mspx)
• Case studies?   We got ‘em (http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/clientsecurity/prodinfo/casestudies.mspx)

Those are some of the most frequent questions we fielded.  If you have any other questions, please visit our newsgroups (http://forums.microsoft.com/ForeFront/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=309&SiteID=41) – we read and answer the questions here on a regular basis.

I have been to many, many TechEds, but this was my first as a Microsoft employee.  I have to say – this was the best TechEd for me, because this time, when I spoke to fellow attendees, the feedback I received had more meaning! 

Hello Folks – well it’s been a while since there has been a post to this blog.   The past few months have been pretty busy for the team as we’ve been heads down with shipping the product.

As you may have heard, we officially announced the release of Forefront Client Security (FCS) on May 2^nd at the Forefront + System Center launch in Beverly Hills.   This was a great event and an exciting day for the team.   After a lot of hard work and effort, we’re very happy to be releasing the product to the world. 

I was fortunate to be able to attend the launch event– hopefully there are some readers who were also able to be there.  It was great to be able to meet with so many folks, talk about the product, answer questions and hear feedback.   For those who are interested, you can view the keynote as well as the drill-down presentations (including the one on Forefront Client Security I did with Brendan and Josue) at http://www.microsoft.com/infrastructure/virtualevent.mspx.    

I’d encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about the product to visit http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/clientsecurity/default.mspx.   From this site you can find a lot more information as well as download the evaluation edition, which will let you try out the product for 120 days.    

I do want to take a moment to publicly thank all of the folks who participated in the beta and early adopter programs for FCS.  You provided a lot of valuable feedback and we could not have shipped the product without your input.    Moving forward I’d like to encourage everyone to continue to provide that feedback to us – tell us what you like, what you don’t like, and suggestions for how we can make the product even better moving forward.   You can post comments directly to the blog or check out the FCS web forums at http://forums.microsoft.com/ForeFront/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=309&SiteID=41 – this is also a great place to ask questions and find answers.

Thanks,

Anthony Chavez

Product Unit Manager

Forefront Client Security