Forefront and SBS 2008+ 64-bit
Well, I must say that there has been grnter Configuration Manager (SCCM)
Well, it is obvious, to say the least, Forefront is not for the faint-of-heart and definitely not for the small business environment, which is why those businesses remain with other anti-malware products even though
they would like to give Forefront a shot and perhaps will stick with it. Microsoft needs to deliver an SBS-focused Forefront Protection Suite sooner than later. The same components of the standard Forefront Protection Suite but optimized in a package for deployment
on SBS (32- and 64-bit) and deployment from SBS to network clients. The installation package should be able to check for installation requirements and install/enable those pre-requisites then move onto installing Forefront components. And to add, it should
also have SQL Express or compact edition of some sort integrated for SBS Standard Edition which does not include SQL Server Standard, this is simply because if SQL is a requirement for SMBs that have SBS Standard Edition, they will simply remain with competing
security solutions that have their own database accounted for without an additional penny in cost or database configuration tasks/headaches. One would think this would already be taken care of by now but perhaps it has not been that obvious to Microsoft. Anyway,
in the meantime competing security products prvail on SBS networks. As far as I know, none of our SBS clients are moving to Forefront anytime soon due to all these issues that need to be straightened out and a clear path is available for SBS networks. And
to make things worse, presales calls to Microsoft does not help one bit, they simply refuse to provide information that is supposed to help one buy their products under the "you are not a Certified Partner" clause, I guess Registered partners do not count
even in presales. One would think this only applies in technical support instances. What a flawed policy, I don;t know of any other company that refuses to provide presales product details unless you first subscribe as a "Certified Partner". Well, I guess
the several thousand licenses we renew each year will stay with competitors. Its Microsoft's loss, I guess.