Microsoft Forefront – Ensuring Client Security and Timely Delivery of Data

Posted on May 15 by admin

Microsoft Forefront is a family of products available to secure a business’ network from computer criminals or hackers who send malicious threats, such as viruses Trojans, and spyware through a spam message or an e-mail attachment, or attack systems to spread malware. With MS Forefront, users have access to a line of family products that provide the needed protection for a safe, secure, and malicious-free computer and network.

MS Forefront is capable of ensuring confidentiality, integrity and availability– abbreviated CIA– for computer networks and network/client servers. Those who use Forefront will have some control over the security of their network infrastructure and their traffic to safeguard sensitive data and ensure its timely delivery. They can also protect the on-premises client from potential threats that are coming from the Internet.

With business security issues continuing to grow as reports say, the need and obligation to do something about it is imperative, and obvious. MS Forefront’s family of line-of-business security software products has been developed to overcome systems’ weaknesses – it tackles ever-changing threats and increased business demands by dealing with threats or attacks that try to intrude computer systems.

Forefront offers computer security-related support to protect the Microsoft client and server operating systems…it helps block or remove malicious content and other emerging threats before they infect a vulnerable system MS Forefront provide end-to-end solutions that will help protect an organization’s IT infrastructure, enabling in-depth security protection.  It also offers an easy to install, painless to use solution against today’s computer-related security issues.

The family of Forefront products is discussed in the paragraphs that follow. A user is able to choose which of Microsoft’s software best suits their needs or demands.

Client security

Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection, formerly known as Microsoft Forefront Client Security, is an antivirus software product. It can be used for prevention and removal of malicious threats and spyware protection.

Server security

Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server is used to protect users running Microsoft Exchange Server. It uses multiple scanning engines that can detect viruses and spyware much faster and easier than single-engine solutions.

Alternatively, there is Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE), which can be used instead to protect the businesses’ inbound and outbound e-mail from malicious threats. This online security software can help ensure timely delivery of data and be used to filter web traffic and/or inspect it to block suspicious malicious-looking activities.

Microsoft Forefront Protection 2010 for SharePoint Server is used to protect users running Microsoft SharePoint Server. It can be used to help prevent users from uploading or downloading documents containing malware. The same protection is provided to those that choose to use Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server.

Network edge security

Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 is used as a secure web gateway to provide protection against web-based threats. It provides cloud-based URL and malware filtering, as well as provides routing and firewall protection.

TMG is Microsoft’s way of providing secure access to cloud services.

Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG) is a remote access solution, providing access control, authorization, and content inspection to an organizational network based on a virtual private network (VPNs) device: ultimately providing compliance and security, embracing secure socket layer (SSL) technology, firewall and endpoint security.

Depending on what a business or individual wants to protect, MS Forefront is sure to offer the right solution and data security software to choose.

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Microsoft Sharepoint and Eastern Health Systems – A Case Study

Posted on May 4 by admin

SharePoint is an application created by Microsoft to provide businesses with the tools necessary to streamline their operations and improve the communication between employees as well as with customers. MS SharePoint provides businesses with a platform and tools that allow the centralized storing and management of documents so that they can be accessed from different workstations or work sites.

Employees can collaboratively work on the same documents, review progresses, and post results for other employees or customers to see. The new version, MS SharePoint 2010, adds to the previous Web content management tool a social network functionality that allows the management of the flow of information between a business and its customers.

MS SharePoint 2010 is flexible and easy to customize, so that a business can maintain control and manage how the system is used.

The importance of such system for businesses is clearly shown by its application in Eastern Health System (EHS), an Alabama health center delivery system managing three medical centers and twelve primary care centers. Innovative Architects, an IT provider specializing in healthcare business technology, provided the right healthcare technology solutions to Eastern Health Systems by implementing MS SharePoint and providing SharePoint consulting.

Eastern Health Systems needed to improve the access and sharing of the flow of information it managed in order to provide better and prompter care for their patients as well as better and quicker access to information for providers and staff.

Innovative Architects identified in the Microsoft SharePoint application the right solution for the healthcare business: a series of portals and web sites allowed the hospital to organize all information managed by the company.

All documents became not only easily accessible from patients and staff as needed, but were also easy and quick to update by designated users.

The passage from a paper-based system to an electronic one had the benefit of reducing costs in terms of less printing, less storage needs, less time wasted in filing and cross-filing and better use of the IT staff now free to concentrate on the system management rather than on the updating and posting of information.

The implementation of MS SharePoint 2010 also helped EHS management make better business decisions, thanks to tools that helped them analyze data such as personnel performance data, inpatient customer survey responses and average response time to requests for service. The Business Intelligence Dashboards in SharePoint 2010 aggregates data and displays them in charts that make it is easier to analyze facts and target areas needing improvement.

EHS’ success came with the installation of just one piece of software. The implementation of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 created the conditions for providing better care for customers, as well as helped management cut costs and streamline operations – in addition to an overall improved working environment for employees.

It also set in place, thanks to analysis functionalities built in the application, ways to measure customer satisfaction and effectiveness of businesses processes; this allowed a means to continue improving operations in the future.

For more detailed information on how MS Sharepoint helped Eastern Health modernize its operations, read our Sharepoint case study today.

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The Race to the Cloud

Posted on Apr 30 by admin

Cloud computing could best be defined as Internet-based computing – an organization receives services or uses software that are provided to them via the Internet through a remote server.

There’s also a variety of cloud computing service types: private, public or hybrid cloud infrastructure services are available for the purpose of sharing physical resources, hosting applications, or provide online file storage/access. Each cloud service can provide benefits, especially to small and medium businesses (SMBs) in terms of increased storage capability, reduced costs to acquire computer resources, and hosting customer relationship management (CRM) applications.

It is no secret that every business always strives to do a better job at engaging customers, or  otherwise improve performance and increase productivity. Cloud computing may be the right solution and the most profound technological shift to date. It is “the race to the cloud,” one might say, as cloud computing appears to be transforming the IT industry.

The “cloud” fundamentally changes how work is done in an office since it is essentially provides the computer infrastructure, but as a service. This solution offers maximum cost-efficiency through on-demand network access to a shared pool of resources, such as IT networks, servers, online storage, and web-based computer applications.

Businesses have the option to be relieved from the burden of having to buy hardware and software to be installed on site. Savings come also from not needing a large IT-management team. Each business can also decide how much of its IT infrastructure can be supported by the cloud and how much should be done on-site.

Businesses can choose cloud services in terms of the following:

  • Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS)
  • Software as a service (SaaS).

There are quite a few cloud computing companies out there to choose from.

Microsoft, for example, is one company that is still a new player in the cloud market with its own cloud-computing networks: the cloud-based Office 365 productivity suite and Windows Azure, which were released in 2011 and 2009 respectively. They are both Windows-as-a-service platforms.

Microsoft’s latest cloud-computing network, the System Center 2012, is essentially Microsoft Private Cloud. It is an integrated virtual and physical IT management solution, which may require Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, for SMBs that want to embrace cloud computing to manage private or public cloud applications and services. Microsoft’s cloud solution is likely to help reduce costs, improve application availability and enhance service delivery to data centers.

Microsoft cloud computing is, presently, very popular among SMB users, but other companies offer online “cloud” services. Google, for example, has Google Docs. Google and Microsoft offer similar products and services and are almost equal in terms of functionality. The better company providing an online service really depends on one’s requirements. What has some customers deciding on Google Docs is that it is slightly less expensive than Microsoft’s Office 365 online services. Another advantage that Google Docs has over Office 365 is that it provides real-time online business collaboration which Microsoft’s “co-authoring” concept lacks and limits.

Who knows for certain which company’s services will “own” the cloud?

All that is certain is, at the present time, the race to move business software to the cloud is going forward and more SMBs are utilizing cloud computing to meet their needs.

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