“With its new line of security applications for businesses, officially introduced in June, the company is starting an effort to establish itself as a key vendor in a market that it has previously been happy to turn over to Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partners. Those partner-turned-competitor ISVs will have to respond to Microsoft’s challenge, just as other partners will need to manage relationships both with current ISV security partners and with Microsoft in order to fully exploit the opportunities that Forefront creates.

“Available now, Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 is a gateway server designed to protect a network from Internet-based threats and give users remote access to applications, the company’s literature says. Microsoft’s Steve Brown says the company expects to release a new Forefront version of ISA with the release of Longhorn server in late 2007.”

For more information: http://rcpmag.com/features/article.aspx?editorialsid=643

HTH,

Tom

Thomas W Shinder, M.D.
Site: www.isaserver.org
Blog: http://blogs.isaserver.org/shinder/
Book: http://tinyurl.com/3xqb7
Email: tshinder@isaserver.org
MVP — Microsoft Firewalls (ISA)