Take a First Peek at the Next Generation of Forefront Server Security Products
Yesterday, we released beta versions of the next generation of Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Forefront Security for SharePoint products. We’ve made significant investments in improving how you can deploy, manage, protect, monitor and troubleshoot your messaging and collaboration environments with Forefront, and these beta releases are meant to give you an idea of what to expect with the next versions of these products.
One of the most important additions to these next-gen versions is the integration with the Forefront code name “Stirling” management infrastructure. This new console and dashboard will provide management across multiple instances the Forefront Server products, in addition to managing Forefront client, and network edge protection products. This integration will allow administrators to centrally configure settings and generate reports across all the managed products. I am even more excited about something new being introduced as part of the Stirling system that we call “Dynamic Response.” It is an innovative Microsoft technology built into each component of "Stirling" that collects and shares data from all of these protection points to help better identify threats -- and then allows administrators to take preventative actions in an orchestrated or automated fashion. This will go a long way towards addressing some of today’s most common challenges in effectively managing security across your enterprise.
You’ll see the integration with our new Stirling console beginning with the beta of Forefront Security for Exchange Server – Forefront Security for SharePoint integration with the Stirling will be available in a future beta release. You’ll also find a newly updated, intuitive management client that ships with the stand-alone versions of Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Forefront Security for SharePoint. This client is designed to be consistent with our Stirling Server user experience and focused on making administration and troubleshooting of Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Forefront Security for SharePoint easier than ever before.
Finally, this early beta release will showcase the new Powershell support we’ve built pervasively into both products. We consistently hear from customers the desire for programmatic interfaces that will allow them to integrate some aspects of managing their Forefront Security environments with their existing infrastructure. With this release you will have new options for retrieving incident logs and quarantine data, as well as configuring system settings via Powershell.
You can check out the new beta releases here. Take it for a test drive and send us your feedback… we want to hear from you. Additionally, please stay tuned to this site as this is where we will unveil many more new Forefront Server features over the coming months!
Brett Tanzer
Product Unit Manager
Forefront Server Security
Microsoft Long Island Development Center