Forefront TMG Web Protection Services

Microsoft remind us that Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) Web Protection Services will end on 31 December 2015.

This article (http://bit.ly/1X0i2wT) confirms that there will be no further updates to this URL filtering/categorisation service beyond this date but that the gateway product itself, Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010, will remain under extended support until 14 April 2020.

The article also has a link if you’re interested in how to move from TMG to newer solutions.

Changes to Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 Licensing

Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 R2 is removed as a product from the April 2015 Product Use Rights document (see page 5) and the right to install FIM is moved to Windows Server 2012 R2. New text on page 39 of the April 2015 Product List states that customers are allowed to run an instance of FIM for each licensed instance of Windows Server that they have.

Licences for users to access FIM functionality are still required and pages 25/26 of the PUR tell us that a FIM 2010 R2 User CAL is eligible, as is an Enterprise Mobility Suite User SL or a Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium User SL or, for external users, a FIM 2010 R2 External Connector licence. Pages 26/27 state, however, that if a user is only using the FIM synchronisation service then a CAL is not required.

And what about customers who have active SA on FIM 2010 R2? Well, as long as it was active on 1 April 2015 then they’re deemed to have 1 Windows Server Datacenter licence, and you’ll find confirmation of that on page 39 of the Product List.

Forefront UAG approaches End Of Life

The Forefront lineup continues to dwindle and now it’s Forefront UAG that’s soon to be End Of Life… Microsoft made the announcement on their Server and Tools Blog, where key takeaways are:

  • Forefront UAG will be removed from price lists on 1 July 2014
  • Customers with active SA on a Forefront UAG Server licence will receive a Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard licence, and
  • Any customers with active SA on UAG at 1 December 2013 may add new UAG server instances, users and devices without ordering additional licences.

The full article is here: http://bit.ly/1dxYXwb