Today the team delivered the anticipated Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 (FEP) public beta to customers.  The successor of Forefront Client Security is built on System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 R2, allowing customers to use their existing client management infrastructure to deploy and manage endpoint protection.

The end result? Customers will save capital costs on roll-out and also reduce training costs because administrators won't have to learn yet another management user interface.

FEP supports Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and all subsequent versions of the Windows client and server operating systems. Other new features include:

• New Antivirus Engine.  Highly accurate and efficient threat detection protects against the latest malware and rootkits with low false positive rate.  
• New behavioral threat detection.  Protection against "unknown" or "zero day" threats provided through behavior monitoring, emulation, and dynamic translation. 
• Windows Firewall management.  Ensures Windows Firewall is active and working properly on all endpoints, and allows administrators to more easily manage firewall protections across the enterprise.
• Dynamic Cloud Updates. On-demand signature updates from the cloud for suspicious files and previously unknown malware

If you are using System Center currently, you can download the SCCM 2007 R2 trial to understand the features and functionality that it provides to administrators for FEP trial purposes. 

We will announce pricing and licensing at a later date and the final product is on track to be available in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Download the Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 beta here and let us know what you think.  Need more information? Check out the Microsoft Forefront homepage and watch the TechNet Edge video below.