14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s Forefront enterprise security suite is slowly coming together as the Redmond company announced the release of two components, namely Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 (TMG) and Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 (UAG). In November, enterprise customers looking to migrate to the latest iteration of Exchange Server could secure their environments with Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server. TMG and UAG are endpoint security solutions offered to customers in addition to Forefront Protection designed for Exchange Server 2010.
“TMG is a secure web gateway that enables safe employee web use through comprehensive protection against malware, malicious web sites and vulnerabilities. Building on its predecessor, ISA Server 2006, TMG provides new URL filtering, anti-malware, and intrusion-prevention technologies to protect businesses against the latest web-based threats. These technologies are integrated with core network protection features such as firewall and VPN to create a unified, easy-to-manage gateway,” revealed a member of the Forefront team.
While both Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 and Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 have been officially released on December 3rd, 2009, only one of the two solutions is actually available. Customers will be able to download and start test driving TMG 2010 immediately, and even buy the actual bits. But the same is not valid for UAG 2010. According to Microsoft, Unified Access Gateway 2010 will only be released to manufacturing in mid-December 2009. In this regard, customers will still have to wait for the general availability deadline, albeit the wait will be short, no longer than early in 2010.
“Building on its predecessor, Intelligent Application Gateway, UAG enables remote access via managed and unmanaged PCs and mobile devices. Integrating a deep understanding of applications, the health state of end user devices, and the user’s identity – UAG enforces granular access controls, ensures security, and reduces management costs and complexity,” the forefront team member added. “While UAG provides a variety of connectivity options such web publishing and SSL VPN tunnels, one of the best new features is UAG’s support and enhancements for Windows DirectAccess (DA).”
Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 is available for download here. Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server is available for download here.