The Realm of the Verbal Processor

Anti Malware–the landscape just changed

HUGE announcement at MMS just now. Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 is now part of the Microsoft Core CAL. This means that all the customers who have a Core CAL already…which many who own ConfigMgr have it licensed via the Core CAL…ALREADY have the licensing in place for FEP…they already own it. If you have a Core CAL…it eliminates the need to purchase a separate AV license. You can just use FEP…which is managed via the ConfigMgr console…which eliminates a separate management infrastructure for malware…you simply manage it all via ConfigMgr.

This will likely have a big impact on AV vendors. I can hear clients asking the question now…”I already have FEP licensed via the Core CAL…and I can manage it with ConfigMgr which I already have deployed. Why should I renew my AV licensing with ______________?”

This is huge. It should be very interesting to see the full impact of this announcement over the next year or so.

March 23, 2011 - Posted by Jarvis | ConfigMgr, ConfigMgr 2012, MMS 2011