Forefront solutions in the new Windows Essential Servers

You may have heard about last week's launch of Windows Essential Business Server 2008 and Small Business Server 2008.  SBS and EBS are integrated IT solutions that are priced and designed specifically for the needs of small and midsized companies. In sum, they help smaller firms take advantage of enterprise-class IT. 

In addition to Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007 and other products, both SBS and EBS include Forefront Security for Exchange Server for layered protection against the latest e-mail based threats, including viruses, worms, and spam.

EBS also includes Forefront Threat Management Gateway Medium Business Edition.  Designed specifically as an integrated component of Essential Business Server, TMG MBE helps provide comprehensive threat management, secure Internet access, and remote access for small to medium size organizations (up to 300 users.) TMG MBE includes a fully featured corporate firewall capability, and adds a Unified Threat Management (UTM) capability to the EBS console. It allows customers to securely publish Microsoft Exchange Server (Outlook Web Access) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for remote access.

In contrast, Forefront TMG (not the Medium Business Edition in EBS) is the next version of the ISA Server, and builds on top of existing ISA Server functionality to deliver new protection capabilities, including Web antimalware, as well as enhancements to the UI, management, and reporting. It will support organizations from small to large.  TMG beta 1 is currently available for download and evaluation as part of the Forefront codename “Stirling” beta 1.