Microsoft Boosts Security Efforts

Nearly two years after launching its Trustworthy Computing initiative, the company announced last week plans to integrate new safety and inspection technologies for Windows in mid- to late 2004 and issued to its partners a call to action.

Windows XP Service Pack 2, which will boast new client-side technologies to shield against malicious attacks, is slated to go into beta-testing later this year and ship by mid-2004. The Redmond, Wash.-based company characterized this as more than a typical update.

"This is a service pack on steroids," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told partners convened in New Orleans for the company's Worldwide Partner Conference. The XP update will offer an improved Internet Connection Firewall, more secure Internet browsing and memory protection to guard against buffer overflows, he said.

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, due in the second half of 2004, promises to bolster Microsoft's new "Secure The Perimeter" mandate with port-scanning technologies and configuration checks of laptops and other remote devices trying to access a corporate network. Microsoft plans to launch Software Update Services (SUS) Server 2.0 for better and more automated patch management and updates by the first half of 2004, Ballmer said. The beta, which originally was slated for this fall, is expected by year's end.

With the imminent launch of Office System 2003 on Oct. 21, executives dribbled out some other product goodies of interest to partners. Visual Studio Tools for Office will officially launch this week, sources said. And Microsoft CRM 1.2, which will be offered in an aggressively priced promotion with Small Business Server 2003, is expected to debut Dec. 1, said Jeff Young, general manager for Microsoft Business Solutions. Also highlighted was the official release of the $500 entry-level Small Business Server 2003.

At the conference, Microsoft acknowledged the rough business climate channel partners find themselves in and urged them to develop key competencies in specific areas, including security, to buttress their services business next year.

In this economy, solution providers can't compete on technology acumen alone,they need business consulting skills to survive, said Allison Watson, vice president of Microsoft's worldwide partner group.

Burley Kawasaki, CTO of Bellevue, Wash.-based Equarius, said solution providers must address customer "preoccupation with security." The fact that Microsoft makes myriad patches available quickly "doesn't matter if people don't know about them and don't apply them," he said. "They need to take a full view of training and education. Right now, you can't have a business discussion [with customers] without talking about security. We're always responding to customer questions."