Microsoft is moving into the enterprise
security market with new antivirus and antispyware products it
hopes to have available for businesses by the end of the year, with
a server-level offering to follow early in
2006.
It made the announcements in a strategic security update, which
also signalled the setting up of an alliance of around 30 security
vendors, the Secure IT Alliance, to work on better integration
between their products and those from Microsoft. The alliance
includes Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro, F-Secure and VeriSign.
A new Microsoft client protection product is designed to help
protect business desktops, laptops and file servers from current
and emerging malware threats such as spyware, viruses and rootkits.
The software will offer IT administrators central management
capabilities and work with Microsoft's Active Directory and Windows
Server Updates Services patch management tool. Microsoft is also
working to deliver digital rights management tools as well as
identity management technologies for user access control.
The move into the enterprise security market tends to suggest
that Microsoft has more confidence in the security of its products.
Witness its recent presentation of new Explorer elements to the
hacking community. The Secure IT Alliance sounds impressive, but
the suspicion remains that this may be more marketing than
substance. Alliances always take too long to achieve too
little.