As an integral part of its Business Ready Security vision, Microsoft has made available new security solutions to customers. The Microsoft Forefront Online Security for Exchange and the Microsoft Forefront codename “Stirling” Beta 2 are already available for evaluation straight from the Redmond company. The Business Ready Security involves, from Microsoft's perspective, the integration and extending of security enterprise wide, delivering protection independent of location, and enabling anywhere access, along with simplifying security and compliance management.

“Security managers are telling us they want to be more responsive to the needs of their business. They want the solutions and guidance to protect their organizations and manage compliance, but also to empower their information workers. Perhaps most important, they want to make the most of their current IT investments and the infrastructure they have today. All of this signals the need for a shift to what we think of as “Business Ready Security”,” revealed Douglas Leland, general manager of Microsoft’s Identity and Security Business Group.

One contributor to the Business Ready Security strategy is Forefront Online Security for Exchange. Available as a Microsoft Online Service, Forefront Online Security for Exchange is dedicated to keeping email communications safe from spam and malware. The Redmond company referred to the service as being capable of complementing the on-premise, software-based Forefront offerings.

“We are making security experiences and compliance management much simpler and cost-effective for both IT and businesspeople. In support of this, today we are announcing a new, public test version of Forefront, code-named “Stirling.” “Stirling” is an integrated security suite that coordinates protection and visibility across desktops, servers, applications and the network edge,” Leland added.

In addition, Microsoft also provides codename Geneva, a solution designed to deliver secure access both to software products and hosted services. But, while providing a framework designed to tackle security an identity issues associated with applications and services, the Redmond company also underlines that emphasis is placed on the evolution of the Windows platforms in order to help business customers stay secure.

The software giant even provided Exostar’s ForumPass solution as an illustrative example of how its technology, especially Active Directory Federation Services and Forefront products, could be leveraged in order to enable secure collaboration via Office SharePoint Server 2007.


Microsoft Code Name “Geneva” is available for download here.

Microsoft Forefront codename “Stirling” Beta 2 is available for download here.