Microsoft Quietly Kills Forefront Security Products

This doesn't seem the right way to do it, but Microsoft has finally decided to discontinue several Forefront products, mostly because other software solutions are already integrating their features.

A post on the official Server & Cloud Blog reveals that a total of five products will be killed and, as of December 1, 2012, they will no longer be available for purchase.

The Forefront-branded solutions that will be killed are the following:

- Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server (FPE);
- Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint (FPSP);
- Forefront Security for Office Communications Server (FSOCS);
- Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 (TMG);
- Forefront Threat Management Gateway Web Protection Services (TMG WPS).

Support will continue to be offered, however, depending on the acquired product, but customer subscriptions cannot be renewed after December 31, 2015. Extended support for Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 (TMG) will end April 14, 2020.

Another important change in the Forefront suite concerns Online Protection for Exchange, one of the tools already offered as part of Office 365. From now on, this particular software will be called Exchange Online Protection.