RSA 2009 – Show Notes

Hello. This is Jim Molini from the Forefront Server team and it’s that time of year again. The Forefront team is at RSA 2009 and people are asking about the new Forefront Security line. After two days of meeting with customers we are seeing lots of interest in integrated security and the new features being offered with the Stirling wave.

This year, I came early to attend the (ISC)2 20th Anniversary Dinner and Reception hosted over at the JW Marriott. It was a great gathering of people from the Information Security Community. We had Donn Parker, Bill Murray, Dr. Jae Woo Lee, Hal Tipton, Rolf Moulton, and many of the early pioneers in our industry all in the same place for an evening. Everyone had a wonderful time.

At the conference site, the opening reception on Monday went smoothly. We’re staffing it with more than 30 people from all over the division and we’ve got some partners who are helping to extend the Forefront line with related technology.

Tuesday, Scott Charney talked about Trustworthy Computing and Business Ready Security. He summarized some of the work our team has been doing to prevent the kinds of criminal activities that seem to affect every corporation today. You can find a link to that talk here.

I’d like to highlight a couple of items from the show today. First, the public beta of Forefront Security for Exchange is available for download and has industry leading capabilities. As we’ve done for years, we continue to provide the highest malware catch rate in the industry for Exchange servers. We’ve added premium antispam to the mix to significantly reduce the threats coming through common network entry points. Then with the integration of the central management console in the "Stirling" suite, you will be able to manage large installations from a single location. Stop by the booth this morning and I’ll show you how it works.

Also at this show we have unveiled a new partner initiative that takes the best technology from a number of well known industry organizations and extends the reach of Forefront beyond the traditional scope. These partners are building enhancements and bringing new capabilities to the Forefront line by integrating their advanced security technology with the new centralized console in Forefront code named “Stirling.” Today we have 10 partners who have signed on as charter members of this team and we expect to have more coming in every month. If you want to be a partner with the Forefront team, come by the Partner spot and see how we can work together on better security solutions.

Like I’ve said, if you’re at the RSA conference, stop by the booth and say hello. If you’re online, follow my movements today on Twitter.

Jim Molini, CSSLP
Senior Program Manager
Forefront Server Security