A really sad day from a product launch perspective. The Forefront Product Group announced the delays the schedule and changes the strategy from a architecture perspective for Forefront Endpoint Protection:
From .
Today we are announcing a schedule and strategy update for Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010, a component of the upcoming Forefront Protection Suite (previously codenamed “Stirling.”)
We are delaying the release Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 – anti-malware for Windows desktops and servers – until the second half of 2010. Based on customer feedback and market trends, we have made the strategic decision to build Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) on System Center Configuration Manager, Microsoft’s solution to comprehensively assess, deploy, and update servers, clients, and devices. This approach better aligns our customers’ client management and security infrastructure, helping simplify deployment and reduce costs.
We are confident this is the right decision for our customers. In the interim, we will continue to offer our current Forefront Client Security (FCS) solution, which supports and protects both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. We are developing the necessary tools and guidance to facilitate the future upgrade from Forefront Client Security to Forefront Endpoint Protection and will help customers with the migration process.
We also remain committed to providing integrated management for the Forefront Protection Suite. We will release Forefront Protection Manager in the first half of 2010, as scheduled, providing multi-server management for Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server and Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint. We will provide information about endpoint security management in Forefront Protection Manager at a later time.
We are on track to release all other Forefront products on schedule, as part of our Business Ready Security strategy: