Security Products Overview

A security product code-named Stirling will deliver capabilities similar to a combination of today’s Forefront products. As currently planned, Stirling will deliver capabilities comparable to Forefront Client Security, Forefront Security for Exchange, Forefront Security for SharePoint, ISA Server, and the Intelligent Application Gateway remote access software, and provide a unified console, reporting, and analysis components. The Forefront products will continue to be available separately, but the separate products will be based on the Stirling technology. Stirling is currently planned for the first half of 2009, but the scope of the project makes the delivery date difficult to predict.

Before Stirling, Microsoft will have delivered service packs for most Forefront-branded products to enable them to run on Windows Server 2008; some, but not all, of the products have that support today. Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA Server) will probably get Windows Server 2008 compatibility in a new release, named Forefront Threat Management Gateway, that could also deliver integrated scanning for malware and inappropriate content, among other features. Microsoft also will probably update the Intelligent Application Gateway remote access software (currently sold only with dedicated network appliances and to be renamed Forefront Unified Access Gateway) for compatibility with Windows Server 2008 and make it a stand-alone software product, as well as a component of Stirling.