Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 RC Now Available

Microsoft has released the Release Candidate (RC) version of Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010. This is the final public release prior to our RTM (release to manufacturing) and even though no new major features were introduced in the Release Candidate, there are several important improvements about security, reliability, performance, telemetry integration and overall solution completeness.

You can install Forefront TMG 2010 RC today and upgrade to a licensed version once available without changing the configuration of your deployment.  

The download of Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 RC is available from here.

My personal favorite feature of Forefront TMG is the ability to combine two ADSL lines (“ISP Redundancy”, as it’s officially called).

Source: Forefront TMG (ISA Server) Product Team Blog

Download Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint Beta 2

Microsoft has just released Beta 2 of “Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint”:

Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint helps prevents users from uploading or downloading documents containing malware, out-of-policy content, or sensitive information to SharePoint libraries. Using multiple anti-malware scanning engines from industry-leading security partners combined with file and keyword filtering, Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint provides comprehensive protection against the latest threats. The product integrates with SharePoint technologies to provide high performance, easily customized protection optimized for SharePoint collaboration environments

The download, which is 115.9 MB in size, can be found here.

Source: Microsoft Download Center

(Updated) Forefront UAG RC0 Download Available

As we reported a few days ago, Microsoft has made available for download the “Release Candidate 0” (RC0) of Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG).

Forefront UAG RC0 provides a number of new features, including support for migration from Forefront UAG Beta 2.

Even though Forefront UAG requires Windows Server 2008 R2, the UAG RC0 requires the Release Candidate edition of Windows 2008 R2.

Update: Forefront UAG RC0 can be installed on Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM, the reference to the RC version is probably wrong. This is also confirmed at the System Requirements page of Forefront UAG RC0:

Forefront UAG can be installed on computers running Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard (RTM release) or Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise (RTM release) operating systems.

 

More information about Forefront UAG as follows:

• To read the Forefront UAG documentation, visit the Forefront UAG TechCenter library (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd861463.aspx)
• To read about up-to-date issues, visit the Forefront UAG Product Team blog (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=156512)
• For Beta 2 support issues, visit the Forefront UAG forum (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=156513)
• To migrate a Forefront UAG Beta 2 configuration to RC0, ensure that you run the UAG_RC0_4_0981_2.msp file after running Forefront UAG Setup.

Source: Microsoft Download Center

Forefront UAG RC0 available in a few days

Forefront Unified Access Gateway, the upcoming Microsoft product for secure remote access and application publishing, has reached its Release Candidate 0 milestone and will be available for download in the next few days.

Forefront UAG integrates Windows Server 2008 R2 DirectAccess to allow seamless connectivity to corporate networks regardless of location. It will also make use of functionality of Forefront TMG, the new version of ISA Server 2006, which will feature the ability to combine ADSL lines.

Here's the shortlist of some highlights you'll find in Forefront UAG RC0:

· Publishing Exchange – Added Web Services to the out-of-the-box publishing experience, with full support for NTLM and Kerberos authentication.

· Remote Desktop - Support for Remote Desktop publishing and single sign-on through the UAG portal.

· SCOM - The UAG management pack monitors health aspects of critical components of UAG & DirectAccess services, enables centralized viewing of important UAG events and alerts on the SCOM console, and supports array-level views for easier monitoring of complex deployments.

· Simpler array management - Now it's even simpler to deploy and manage your array from the Forefront UAG management console.

· Import/Export - Use the new import/export capability to backup your configuration. You can even export an array configuration and import it into a standalone machine.

Additional features of Forefront UAG can be found at the product’s web site.

Stay tuned for more information as soon as the RC0 is released.

Source: TechNet Blogs

Forefront Security 2010 for Exchange Server RC

In order to be in par with the Exchange Server 2010 Release Candidate release, Microsoft has made available for download the new version of Forefront Security 2010 for Exchange Server:

Microsoft Forefront Security 2010 for Exchange Server provides fast and effective protection against malware and spam by including multiple scanning engines from industry-leading security partners. It also integrates with Forefront Online Security for Exchange to provide the defense-in-depth benefits of hosted and on-premise filtering in a single solution.

Source: Microsoft Download Center

Forefront Service Packs released

Microsoft has released new service packs for Forefront products.

Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server with Service Pack 2: Help protect your Exchange server from viruses and other malware.

Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint with Service Pack 3: Forefront Security for SharePoint with Service Pack 3 helps business protect their Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 collaboration environments by eliminating documents containing malicious code, confidential information, and inappropriate content.