A.
The Microsoft Forefront comprehensive line of business security products provides greater protection and control through integration with your existing IT infrastructure and through simplified deployment, management, and analysis. Microsoft Forefront helps you confidently meet ever-changing threats and increased business demands with highly responsive information protection and access control solutions supported by Microsoft technical guidance.
A.
Microsoft Forefront is a comprehensive product line of security products for business customers, and is designed to be centrally managed and integrated into IT infrastructure products, such as Active Directory, and is intended to scale to many thousands of users. As such, Microsoft Forefront security products are distinct from Microsoft consumer-oriented security products, such as Windows Live OneCare, Windows Defender, and the firewalls built into Windows XP and Windows Vista, which are designed to secure stand-alone PCs.
A.
First and foremost, Forefront provides business customers with highly effective security for Microsoft operating systems, applications, and servers. Beyond that, however, Forefront products are designed to work with your Microsoft infrastructure, such as Active Directory (AD), Group Policies, or Windows Update Services. This means that you can manage security service deployment, distribution, configuration, and enforcement across your organization seamlessly. Security management and reporting becomes more centralized in Forefront; its products integrate with System Center solutions and Windows Server Update Services. More centralized collection and analysis of security management information is possible because all security event information is stored in a single SQL Server repository from which events can be identified and interpreted. The common infrastructure obviates the need to deploy unnecessarily redundant infrastructure, speeding deployment and reducing costs. And of course, this minimizes the need for expensive training and retraining of administrative staff in a variety of unrelated management and reporting consoles.
A.
The products under the Forefront brand all share a common vision for how to best secure a business’s IT infrastructure. This new brand underlines the Microsoft commitment to the security space and the intent to continually expand an enterprise-grade security product line. In addition, the Forefront brand helps distinguish Microsoft business security products from our more consumer-oriented products, such as Windows Live OneCare and Windows Defender.
A.
Each product under the Forefront brand will undergo a name change consistent with Forefront brand guidelines when the next major version of that product is released. During this transition period, some names may or may not include "Forefront," but all the products embody the values and vision of the brand.
A.
Forefront products will be available as stand-alone solutions or as part of the Enterprise CAL suite, the Exchange Enterprise CAL suite, or an integrated security product suite. Customers who buy stand-alone solutions today will be able to easily upgrade to these broader Microsoft licensing vehicles. See Forefront Products and Licensing for more information.
A.
The industry has concentrated its efforts on adding more and more features to existing products or creating new security products, thus multiplying the number and complexity of point solutions. Despite this, business security issues continue to grow, due in large part to the significant operational challenges:
Integrating those security products so they work well together and leverage each other
Integrating them into pre-existing IT infrastructure
Managing and deploying security simply, pervasively, and without mistakes
Managing security as a single solution instead of a bunch of disparate products
Forefront provides a comprehensive family of highly effective security products, but this is only the first step. By concentrating our efforts on the integration and management aspects of security, Forefront products can help prevent misconfiguration, enable organizations to deploy security products more pervasively, and give businesses a unified view into the security state of their networks. In fact, addressing these operational issues makes the network more secure—the configurations are correct, security is deployed where it is needed, and management and reporting are simplified.
A.
While Microsoft believes that its security products provide the best security for Microsoft operating systems, applications, and servers, it recognizes that many customers have non-Microsoft products in their network; some may be security devices, while others may be applications or servers they wish to protect. Microsoft has an extensive partner ecosystem whose members develop numerous products to protect other operating systems, as well as applications like Oracle and SAP. In keeping with our belief that the major customer challenges are in the areas of integration and management, Microsoft is driving our partners to integrate with Microsoft-based infrastructure products, such as Active Directory, System Center Operations Manager, and System Center Configuration Manager, as well as Internet standards, such as WS-Management, that will enable system administrators to simply and efficiently manage their network security whether the solution is an all-Microsoft solution or a heterogeneous solution..
