Forefront: Important Changes to UAG and FIM

FIM will have a new major release in 2015;

The next full release of FIM will be delivered as part of Microsoft’s identity and access management product roadmap, which includes both on-premises investments and those we are making in Windows Azure Active Directory and related cloud services.

The investment areas for this next major release of FIM will include:

•     Hybrid scenarios with Windows Azure AD
•     User & Access Management
•     Audit & Compliance
  

Forefront Unified Access Gateway to be discontinued;

Based on product strategy, customer feedback, and prevailing market dynamics, Microsoft has made the decision not to deliver any further full version releases of Forefront UAG.

Microsoft customers continue to have access to select remote access and secure application publishing capabilities through Windows Server 2012 R2.  Windows Server is not a complete replacement for all UAG scenarios, but it does provide:

• DirectAccess deployment and policy management.  This capability has been part of Windows Server 2012 since its initial release in September 2012.
• Basic secure application publishing via the new Web Application Proxy service in the Remote Access role of Windows Server 2012 R2.  This new service allows customers to securely publish access to resources through a reverse proxy and includes integration with Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) for conditional access policy and multi-factor authentication capabilities.

Customers will be granted a Windows Server 2012 Standard server license for each UAG server license with active Software Assurance to allow them to make the transition.  For customers who wish to continue using Forefront UAG, Microsoft will provide maintenance and support through the standard Microsoft support lifecycle.  Mainstream support will continue through April 14, 2015, and extended support will continue through April 14, 2020.  Customers with active Software Assurance on UAG as of Dec. 1, 2013 may also add new UAG server instances, users, and devices without any requirement to order additional licenses.

Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 Service Pack 3

Here are details about the new features included in Service Pack 3 for UAG 2010:

• Added support for new client devices
  
  • Windows 8 and Windows RT
    Forefront UAG 2010 SP3 supports Windows 8 and Windows RT client computers using Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 10 on the desktop. In addition, SP3 also supports the following client applications running on Windows 8 and Windows RT:
    • Mail: the built-in Mail application on Windows 8 / Windows RT computers can be used to connect to Exchange servers published through UAG 2010 SP3
    • Remote Desktop: UAG 2010 SP3 adds support for the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 8.0 client that is running on Windows 8
      
  • Windows Phone 8
    SP3 for UAG 2010 adds support for mobile phone devices running the Windows Phone 8 Operating System.

 

• Added client applications
  Forefront UAG 2010 SP3 adds support for the following client applications:
  • Office 2013: Forefront UAG 2010 SP3 supports the following Office 2013 client applications:
    •   Microsoft Outlook 2013
    •    Microsoft Word 2013
    •    Microsoft Excel 2013
    •    Microsoft PowerPoint 2013
      
  • Remote Desktop Client (RDC) 8.0: Forefront UAG 2010 SP3 supports the RDC 8.0 client that is running on Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (http://support.microsoft.com/KB/2592687)
    

 

• Application publishing
  Forefront UAG 2010 SP3 adds support for publishing the following server applications:
  •    Microsoft SharePoint 2013
  •    Microsoft Exchange 2013
    
    
• Fixes included in UAG SP3
  • Over 15 new fixes for customer reported issues. For details, please visit KB 2744025: Description of Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 Service Pack 3

More information can be found here; download here.