Announcing the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide

To assist customers in taking full advantage of the rich security features in Windows Server 2008, Microsoft has developed the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide. The Guide  provides IT professionals with best practices, predefined security templates, and an automated deployment tool to help strengthen the security of servers running Windows Server 2008.

To learn more about the guide, click here .

The security recommendations in the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide are based on the combined experience of Microsoft security experts, customers, partners, and governments worldwide.  The guide lets you choose from two preconfigured security baselines: 

· Enterprise Client: This security baseline is best for the majority of organisations in which functionality is evenly balanced with security.

· Specialised Security – Limited Functionality:   This baseline is best for organisations in which concern for security is so great that a significant loss of functionality is acceptable. For example, military and security agency organisations operate in this type of environment.

Both configurations have been thoroughly tested in Microsoft labs, and validated by customers and partners under real-world conditions.  Customers can easily tailor the configuration they choose, modifying security settings to accommodate the unique needs of their organisation.

This Solution Accelerator also includes the powerful GPOAccelerator tool to help quickly establish, test, and automatically deploy a  tested configuration of Group Policy security settings across organisations —in minutes, instead of hours or days.

The Windows Server 2008 Security Guide provides the following benefits :

· Fast, easy deployment
Customers using the guide’s best practices, predefined templates, and automated tools have reduced the time required to deploy security configurations by up to 80 percent.  And by using the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide together with the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008, customers can automate the secure installation of their entire Windows Server 2008 infrastructure.

· More reliable
Automated tools and templates eliminate many manual steps—giving customers faster, more reliable results.

· Comprehensive
The guide includes information on hundreds of Windows Server 2008 security settings with recommendations for each setting.  The guide also explains in detail how to further harden server roles—a key feature of Windows Server 2008—such as Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), Web, and Terminal Services.

· Thoroughly tested
All security recommendations are fully tested in Microsoft labs, and verified by customers and partners under real-world conditions.

· Free
The Windows Server 2008 Security Guide and the GPOAccelerator are available as free downloads from the Microsoft Download Center. This Solution Accelerator includes the guidance, settings, templates, and the automated tool.