Microsoft has launched in beta a new version of its Forefront security system, designed to reduce total cost of ownership and provide firms with a more fully integrated suite of products to protect them on the client, the server and at the network edge.

Code-named Stirling, the offering features a centralised console from which administrators can manage Forefront Client Security, Security for Exchange Server, Security for SharePoint and the latest version of Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA Server); Forefront Threat Management Gateway.

"We're not supplying three, four or five products but a centralised security service across the board," said Microsoft's Sandeep Modhvadia. "Stirling is the underlying framework that ties everything together, including policy, reporting and intelligence."

A key new feature of Stirling is Dynamic Response; security information sharing technology which enables the system to respond proactively to threats across the various layers of the IT infrastructure, according to Modhvadia. Threats detected by one part of the system can be fed back to ensure other areas are also protected, he explained.