There's currently a good deal of buzz about yesterday's announcement of Microsoft's plans for a no-cost security offering.  Code-named "Morro," the new solution will address the growing need for a PC security solution tailored to the demands of emerging markets.  Related to this, the company will discontinue retail sales of its Windows Live OneCare subscription service effective June 30, 2009.

So, people may ask how does "Morro" compare to Forefront Client Security?  Will enterprise customers use it?  The answer is no, "Morro" is intended for consumers, whereas Forefront products are enterprise solutions, providing the capabilities and features required in sophisticated IT environments, e.g. centralized deployment, management and reporting, security state assessments, scheduled signature distribution, update management, etc.

It is worth noting that "Morro" will have a positive impact on Forefront, because it will allow Microsoft to capture even more threat intelligence from customers as more people use the free anti-malware solution.  We'll be able to use that information in our security research and the development of signatures and protection capabilities in Forefront.

Forefront products are being deployed by increasing numbers of enterprises, with thousands of Microsoft security partners certified to sell and deploy Forefront solutions. And, of course, there's a great road ahead with Forefront codename "Stirling."

You may have heard about last week's launch of Windows Essential Business Server 2008 and Small Business Server 2008.  SBS and EBS are integrated IT solutions that are priced and designed specifically for the needs of small and midsized companies. In sum, they help smaller firms take advantage of enterprise-class IT. 

In addition to Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007 and other products, both SBS and EBS include Forefront Security for Exchange Server for layered protection against the latest e-mail based threats, including viruses, worms, and spam.

EBS also includes Forefront Threat Management Gateway Medium Business Edition.  Designed specifically as an integrated component of Essential Business Server, TMG MBE helps provide comprehensive threat management, secure Internet access, and remote access for small to medium size organizations (up to 300 users.) TMG MBE includes a fully featured corporate firewall capability, and adds a Unified Threat Management (UTM) capability to the EBS console. It allows customers to securely publish Microsoft Exchange Server (Outlook Web Access) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for remote access.

In contrast, Forefront TMG (not the Medium Business Edition in EBS) is the next version of the ISA Server, and builds on top of existing ISA Server functionality to deliver new protection capabilities, including Web antimalware, as well as enhancements to the UI, management, and reporting. It will support organizations from small to large.  TMG beta 1 is currently available for download and evaluation as part of the Forefront codename “Stirling” beta 1.

Earlier this week Microsoft introduced the new Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.2. MAP is a scalable and agent-less assessment platform designed to make it easier to determine which Microsoft technologies are right for your infrastructure, and how to best implement them. In this version, MAP assessment capabilities have expanded to a range of Microsoft products, including Forefront Client Security and Network Access Protection.

I’m Uri Lichtenfeld, product manager for the Intelligent Application Gateway and today I’m very excited to announce the upcoming release of IAG Service Pack 2!  This news is one of the announcements being made in Barcelona this week at the Microsoft TechEd:  IT Pro conference.

As you may know, IAG is a remote access gateway that boosts productivity by giving mobile and remote workers, partners and customers easy, flexible and secure access to virtually any application from a broad range of devices and locations. IAG includes a variety of features, pre-configured policies and tunnels that allow access to virtually any application from any location – securely!  It is a good example of our ongoing focus on integrated identity and security solutions that help customers protect their assets and manage costs.  (As you recall, Microsoft combined its identity and security groups in June.)

Service Pack 2 extends our key investments in application intelligence, end point security and interoperability as well overall performance, stability and ease of use. In the next few weeks, existing IAG customers will be able to obtain SP2 through our OEM hardware partners or on the Microsoft download center.

So let’s take a quick walk through some of the changes in SP2:

·         Ability to run as a virtual machine on Hyper-V: Using Hyper-V Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V you can now run IAG virtually! This can help lower costs and basically increases flexibility. Furthermore, customers can chose to virtualize their disaster recovery systems for easier roll-out.

·         Enhanced interoperability with non-Windows environments (such as Firefox, Linux and Mac): We’ve added end-point detection and Attachment Wiper capabilities for users coming from non Windows+IE environments, increasing the security and productivity from these platforms.

·         New application optimizers for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and OCS Web client: You could always publish these applications generically, but you now have the wizards and configurations in place.

·         New Getting Started Wizard: To help walk you through the first steps of setting up your IAG environment

Also on the list:

·         Improved Kerberos Constrained Delegation (KCD) administrative experience.

·         Improved stability and performance

·         Incorporates all current updates such as:

§  SharePoint Fix

§  WMI-based detection leveraging the Detection Center

§  IP based logging of Network Connector

I’d like to invite you all to learn more about IAG at www.microsoft.com\iag and register and be first to download the new, virtual trial of IAG.

Watch this space – more to come! ;-)

Uri