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How To Purchase Forefront TMG After January 2013

You can still purchase Forefront TMG from OEM appliance vendors. Winfrasoft are the only vendor offering TMG Virtual Appliances for 'software only' deployments.

Scott GlewScott Glew

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.

6 Comments

Archived from our previous comment system.

  • Dan Watson

    Hi Scott,

    Thanks for a great article. I think we are all saddened to see a great tool like TMG retire. The good news is that there are alternatives in the edge access line up from Microsoft that might fit the bill. If you only need to perform reverse application publishing for exchange, sharepoint, and generic web sites, UAG or Unified Access Gateway might fit your needs. UAG offers endpoint detection as well as some of the best security at the edge for publication of application layer HTTP and HTTPS you can find. With UAG you can also publish Activesync and Outlook Anywhere. Give it a look it might fit your needs.

    Best regards from the edge,

    Dan Watson, CISSP - PFE for UAG technologies

    • Darren Stradins

      I think microsoft have blown trust now for a lot of their previously loyal customers. I know they have a roadmap and its in their interest to pull products if no longer financially viable, but they havent really given the real reason why they pulled TMG and why it happened with such short notice.

      UAG (as most people are aware) is built on TMG components... I for one don't have confidence that Microsoft won't do a similar thing to retire UAG with very little notice... so I'm reluctant to go down the UAG path... in fact I'm looking (and struggling at the moment to be honest) in finding alternate TMG solutions without a LOT of outlay multiple hardware solutions.

      The fact that they are continuing TMG with OEM licenses is just frustrating - if they can continue with OEM licenses, why can't they continue with the TMG software only product until 2015....?

  • KingBuzzo

    They also neglected to mention that you cannot purchase a subscription for the built-in Anti-V/Content Filtering and NIS updates after December 2012.

    So basically your new TMG Server is now TMG minus all of the good stuff turning it into just an ISA Server with no roadmap.

    • admin

      Unfortunately not even the OEM loophole can help when it comes to purchasing Web Protection Services. It is a real shame. If you have a MS Enterprise agreement you can enter your Enterprise CAL. If not, send an email support@fastvue.co and we'll help you out.

  • vincent nyirongo

    Can you supply me Microsoft forefront TMG threat management gate way for 120 users for three years?

    If you can how much and how soon?

    • Scott Glew

      Hey Vincent,

      Sorry, but we don't sell Forefront TMG - only TMG Reporter. Unfortunately either does Microsoft. I recommend getting in touch with one of the OEM vendors mentioned above.

      Cheers!
      Scott