Microsoft has released the Information Card Issuance Community Technical Preview (CTP.) This will enable IT administrators to easily issue information cards via Active Directory Federation Services 2.0, giving end users a more flexible and secure means of authentication to applications within the enterprise, across company boundaries and into the cloud. Through this CTP, we hope to gain valuable feedback on our Information Card technologies.
The CTP will support the following scenarios:
We have also adding two new mechanisms for interaction and feedback on this topic, a dedicated Information Card Issuance Forum and a monitored e-mail alias ici-ctp@microsoft.com.
Watch a video from the Office-SharePoint 2010 launch site about how Del Monte uses Forefront to secure its collaboration environments – including comments from Forrester senior analyst Andrew Chiquith. (Click here or on the image below for the video.) A written case study about Del Monte is here.
From the case study:
Benefits By deploying Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint for protection and Active Directory Domain Services for identity–based access, Del Monte helps increase its collaboration, sharing, and access to information, while better protecting its assets. By strengthening its security capabilities, the company is equipped to aggressively pursue its collaboration strategy, taking full advantage of its investment in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.
Enhanced Business Control Without Compromising Flexibility By using Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint, Del Monte benefits from tighter control of its business assets, including its intellectual property, through the use of multiple scanning engines and enhanced file filtering capabilities. Because Del Monte can configure the solution to meet its own business rules and changing security needs, the company retains maximum operational flexibility. “The ability to configure the settings at a granular level enables us to optimize our approach over time, so we can ensure rigorous security across all of our portal resources without negatively impacting productivity,” says Wynn.
Improved IT Management Through Real-Time Health Monitoring The centralized Administrator Console and dashboard management tools in Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint provide the Del Monte IT team with access to consolidated information and analytics, helping to ease security management tasks.
Through these tools, Wynn and others can quickly evaluate the performance of scanning engines and track malware incidents and responses across the company’s entire server system. “Because I can get a comprehensive security status update in a matter of minutes, I can quickly prioritize the issues I need to address across projects and focus more time on achieving business goals,” says Wynn.
From the Microsoft identity blog:
In the category “Best Innovation”, the European Identity Award went to Microsoft for U-Prove. The U-Prove technology, which enables minimal disclosure of identity-related information is considered to be a pioneering effort in enhancing online privacy and security, by analyst firm Kuppinger-Cole & Partners.
In the category “Best Project”, the University of Washington was honored for its identity federation solution in research and education which was developed together with Microsoft and “Live@Edu”.
The University of Washington is delighted to have its work with Microsoft on federation services honored by Kuppinger Cole, said RL "Bob" Morgan, Identity Architect for UW Information Technology and Shibboleth Project core team member. At UW, we are committed to standards-based federation to extend the value of UW identity to the services our users need. It is great to partner with Microsoft since they too are making a commitment to federation for Windows Live and Live@edu. Live@edu's support of higher-education federations including InCommon is a key differentiator. Making it all work has many challenges, but it's essential so the higher-ed community can collaborate seamlessly and securely in cloud environments.
Nathan Dors, manager of Identity and Access Management for UW Information Technology, added that the partnership with Microsoft has been very positive. We agree with Microsoft on the importance of being both standards-oriented and pragmatic. Choice of federating technology is key and we appreciate Microsoft's striving to reach parity between AD FS 2.0 and Shibboleth solutions.
Also in the category “Best Project” Thomson Reuters was honored for its solution enabling users to easily and securely access various application services, which is based on Microsoft’s Windows Identity Foundation and Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS 2.0).
We are delighted to be acknowledged by international analyst firm Kuppinger Cole & Partners for our identity project with Treasura. Being able to provide a standards-based solution from Microsoft has enhanced application security and offered greater access control for our identity infrastructure project,” said Jason Shantz, Architect, Thomson Reuters.
And finally, in the category “Best Project” BMW was honored for its identity management solution covering more than 100,000 dealerships and other external users, replacing existing legacy systems. The project was a co-development with Omada and Microsoft.
From Vittorio Bertocci on Channel 9:
Today [yesterday] we are announcing the general availability of Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 (ADFS 2.0). In this lightning-fast video, Stuart Kwan, Group Program Manager for the Identity and Security Division, lists the essential facts about this new, exciting release. Tune in!
From David Tesar at TechNet Edge:
Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint (FPSP) has been released so I talked with Noreen, program manager for FPSP, who demoed some of the new capabilities. She answers why you would need protection for SharePoint if you already have local, client anti-virus. She tells us about the major design goals for the product & how we delivered on them. Finally, she tells us what’s new since the previous version of SharePoint protection. From 4:13 and onward we demo the product, and here’s how it breaks down:
Demo notes: When Noreen references O14, she’s referring to SharePoint and Office 2010. With 012, she’s referring to SharePoint and Office 2007.