REDMOND, Wash., June 6, 2000 — Building on its commitment to improving business on the Internet, Microsoft Corp. today announced a multilayer firewall and high-performance Web caching server for the enterprise, Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2000 (ISA Server 2000). The newest addition to the Microsoft® Windows® DNA 2000 platform, ISA Server 2000 takes advantage of the security, manageability and control benefits of the Windows 2000 operating system. ISA Server 2000 provides secure, fast Internet connectivity, protecting organizations’ information assets from intruders and unauthorized use, and enhancing employee productivity.
“Security is of prime importance to any company that accesses the Web,”
said Pu Xiang, senior analyst of server technologies for the Dataquest Division at Gartner Group Inc.
“Integrating the firewall and cache offers a two-for-one alternative, for small companies that will run them on a single machine and for large ones that can manage separate installations with the same administrative tools.”
The beta code for ISA Server 2000 is now available for download from http://www.microsoft.com/ISAServer/ . The final release is expected to be available in the second half of 2000. Several independent companies are announcing today compatible products that build on and integrate with the capabilities of ISA Server 2000 in the areas of virus detection, content security, site categorization, reporting and management tools. These companies include Aladdin Knowledge Systems, Content Technologies, CornerPost Software, N2H2, NetGuard, NetIQ Corp., PatchLink.com Corp., Softech Telecom, surfCONTROL, Trend Micro and WebTrends Corp.
“ISA Server 2000 delivers on Microsoft’s commitment to secure computing in the digital age — it is critical to any organization’s IT infrastructure,”
said Paul Flessner, vice president of Windows DNA and Web Services Development at Microsoft.
“Microsoft is excited about the breadth of support from leading vendors of Internet security and management software.”
Protect Information Assets
ISA Server 2000 will protect organizations from hackers, prevent unauthorized Internet usage by employees, and shield Web servers from attacks, enabling IT administrators to manage their company’s Internet access and safeguard their sensitive information. Its packet-, circuit-, and application-layer firewall secures private networks and Web sites by ensuring that only traffic which conforms to the corporate usage policy is allowed to pass into or out of the organization. The firewall features stateful inspection, integrated intrusion detection, system hardening, and
“smart”
data-aware application filters, further enhancing network security.
Enhance User Experience
The ISA Server 2000 cache accelerates users’ access to the Web and saves bandwidth by storing popular Web content on the corporate network, eliminating the need for repeated retrieval of the same content. Web server administrators can use it to accelerate access to a Web server or e-commerce application, to offload processing from the Web servers, or more efficiently distribute their content to end users. ISA Server includes high-performance RAM caching, supports Cache Array Routing Protocol (CARP) and offers efficient scaling, hierarchical caching and scheduled content download.
Control Internet Usage
With unified management and integrated reporting, ISA Server 2000 makes it easy to define and administer Internet usage policies. Administrators can create detailed rules for managing traffic and enforcing enterprise and local access policies by user and group, application, site, content type and schedule.
Windows 2000 Integration
ISA Server 2000 builds on Windows 2000 Server for the best integration with the operating system technologies such as Active Directory™
service, Virtual Private Networking (VPN), Network Address Translation (NAT), authentication, quality of service (QoS) and management tools. ISA Server interoperates transparently with clients and servers running other operating systems.
Windows DNA 2000
Windows DNA 2000 is Microsoft’s platform for rapidly building and deploying next-generation e-commerce, line-of-business and Web solutions that easily integrate with customers, partners and existing applications. In addition to Windows 2000, other components of the Windows DNA 2000 platform include SQL Server™ , Commerce Server, BizTalk™ server, Applications Center, Host Integration Server, Exchange and Visual Studio® — all best-of-breed products that take advantage of a deep pool of developer talent and third-party markets.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, Windows, Active Directory, BizTalk and Visual Studio are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
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