How To Purchase Forefront TMG After January 2013

In September 2012, Microsoft announced it was discontinuing its popular Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) edge security product (read the announcement). Although mainstream support will continue through to 2015, all sales officially ended in December 2012.

If you contact Microsoft to purchase or renew Forefront TMG, you will be told that the product is no longer available.

The OEM License Loophole

Fortunately, Microsoft has not pulled OEM licenses from their Forefront TMG product listing. This means you can still purchase Forefront TMG from OEM appliance vendors such as Winfrasoft, Celestix, Iron Networks (previously nAppliance), IVO Networks, or SecureGuard.

This is still not ideal as most Forefront TMG customers are comfortable with their software only deployment model and do not want yet-another-appliance in their server room or datacenter.

Virtual TMG Appliances

Forefront TMG Virtual Appliances are a great option for 'software only' deployments. You simply download an ISO image and deploy it on your VMware or HyperV infrastructure.

At this point in time, Winfrasoft is the only vendor that offers Forefront TMG virtual appliances in addition to their popular hardware appliances.

If you are looking at purchasing Forefront TMG, or need to renew your license before you have found a suitable TMG replacement, definitely check out the Winfrasoft Virtual TMG Appliances to mimimize the deployment headache.

Download a Forefront TMG Virtual Appliance

Don't Forget Reporting!

Once you are up and running with your Forefront TMG appliance (virtual or hardware), make life that little bit easier and grab yourself a copy of TMG Reporter. Live network dashboards, overview and detailed activity reporting, seamless AD integration, scheduled reporting, customizable alerts and more!  Check out the new features in TMG Reporter 2.1 Beta.