Taking IM security one step forward, Microsoft has announced the availability of the third Beta of the Forefront Security for Office Communications Server. The Beta bits were delivered at the end of the past week, and the Redmond company indicated that it planned to release FSOCS to manufacturing in just a couple of months. The security solution is designed to protect Office Communications Server 2007 instant messaging environments not only from malware, but also from out-of-policy content. With the Beta 3 build of FSOCS, Microsoft is offering support for the successor of Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007.

“In this latest release, we have updated FSOCS to add support for the upcoming Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 release! RTM availability is scheduled for March 2009. This Beta release also includes: support for OCS 2007 R2; support for OCS 2007 Enterprise Edition server roles; integration with OCS 2007 Access Edge role to protect corporate IM from external public IM threats an localization in 11 languages,” Mike Chan, product manager for Forefront Server for Exchange (FSE), stated.

For the time being, the company headquartered in Redmond, Washington, is offering the Beta 2 of FSOCS only in English. The bits are designed to integrate with Windows Server 2003 or Microsoft Windows Server 2008 running on at least a dual-processor, 2.6 gigahertz (GHz), 1 gigabyte (GB) of available memory (2 GB recommended), 2 gigabytes (GB) of available disk space, and also with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition or Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

Forefront Security for Office Communications Server combines multiple scanning engines from what the software giant referred to as industry-leading security partners. “Like other Forefront server security products, FSOCS provides superior detection of the latest threats when compared to single engine solutions by using our multiple engine scanning technology,” Chan added.

Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server Beta 3 is available for download here.