FSOCS provides fast and effective protection against IM-based malware for OCS 2007 and OCS 2007 R2 environments by including multiple scanning engines from industry-leading security partners. FSOCS also helps reduce corporate liability by blocking instant messages containing inappropriate content.

This release includes:

-              64bit support

-              Support for OCS 2007 R2

-              Support for OCS 2007 Enterprise Edition server roles

-              Integration with OCS 2007 Access Edge role to protect corporate IM from external public IM threats

-              Localization in 11 languages

Like other Forefront server security products, FSOCS provides superior detection of the latest threats when compared to single engine solutions by using our multiple engine scanning technology. FSOCS has also been featured in a few of the OCS 2007 R2 virtual launch sessions that you should check out. Lastly, we are making available some new content including a new demo walk though, case studies from Sporton International and Convergent Systems, and a  datasheet. Be on the lookout in the next few weeks for our Technet virtual hands on labs!

Secure your OCS deployments and download FSOCS today!

Thanks,

Mike Chan

Product Manager

Hi Forefront community,

My team members on the Forefront Threat Management Gateway project recently posted a great note on how ISP redundancy works in Forefront TMG. For those that don’t know, ISP redundancy is an important feature if you are deploying Forefront TMG as the edge of your network to filter Web traffic. Some companies choose to have multiple network pipes coming into and out of a site to ensure that if one becomes unavailable, there is at least a modicum of network access.

Forefront TMG lets your company take advantage of both pipes securely. First, it provides a failover capability. It can detect if one of the ISP links is unavailable and transfer traffic to the other link. Second, it provides load balancing between the two links. If one link is a faster link, for instance, Forefront TMG can be configured to route more traffic across that ISP link.

The great thing is that the engineers have removed much of the complexity involved in configuring such a solution. I’ve posted a couple screen shots from Forefront TMG Beta 2 to show how simple it is to configure.

First step is configuring the basic network settings for each ISP.

After configuring the ISPs, you decide the traffic weight between them.

What this means is that keeping your offices secure and connected becomes even simpler as Forefront TMG comes out. If you’re interested in Forefront TMG Beta 2, you can get more information on this Website.

Bill Jensen

I’m Bill Jensen, Senior Product Manager for ISA Server and the upcoming Forefront Threat Management Gateway. For those that do not know, ISA Server is Microsoft’s award-winning edge security solution that enables you to protect your perimeter from attack while allowing remote employees to securely access the corporate network.

Today, I want to share the news that ISA Server 2006 Service Pack 1 has achieved Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 4+ certification! What does this mean?

First, EAL 4+ is the highest level of firewall certification available in the Common Criteria schema. This means ISA Server 2006 SP1 is a perfect fit for environments with high security needs and that it can be confidently used in critical, sensitive environments such as those used to secure tax or financial records.

Second, the certification is provided by an impartial third party (in this case, the Federal Office for Information Security in Germany) and is mutually recognized across all the nations that participate in the Common Criteria schema. Many organizations have already decided that ISA Server 2006 - a top 5 firewall in market share, according to IDC - provides the security they need. This certification gives them further, independent proof of the value of ISA Server to their networks.

If you are interested in learning more, feel free to see our protection profile here or visit the ISA Web site.

Today Microsoft posted an article featuring Server and Tools president Bob Muglia discussing smart ways customers of all sizes can control IT costs in a tough economy. 

Excerpt: 

Microsoft recently released the results of a two-year study of the impact that datacenter best practices could have on IT operations costs. The study shows that businesses also can realize immediate savings just by operating their existing datacenters more efficiently. As part of the study, the company commissioned a survey of CIOs and IT managers at 162 organizations regarding six typical server infrastructure workloads: collaboration, data management, identity and access, e-mail, connectivity, and print server management. The survey found 31 systems-management best practices — such as automated backup, hierarchical storage management and server clustering — that can result in significant savings and improved service levels for businesses of all sizes.

Related to this - you may be interested in the Forefront Client Security Total Cost of Ownership of White Paper. The paper describes a study that showed how customers realized benefits with FCS such as:

85% average reduction in security costs.

75% average security issues response time reduction.

$24 average annual total cost of ownership savings per desktop.