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ISA Server 2004 Details Emerge
Security and ease-of-use improvements are central to ISA Server 2004.
by Mark Cappel

Tech•Ed, May 26, 2004

In an interview at Tech•Ed, Microsoft Product Manager Joel Sloss said the company plans to ship Internet Security & Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 in the third quarter. The revamped, Swiss Army knife-like product offers a panoply of functions, including a basic firewall, a sophisticated application-layer firewall, a VPN server, and a Web cache. In its latest incarnation, ISA Server 2004 offers significant ease-of-use improvements and new features over the earlier version of ISA, which was released in 2000. "Security is a top priority for Microsoft," Sloss said, "and we are committed to helping our customers protect their intellectual property and data." The list price for ISA Server 2004 is $1,499 per processor.

Microsoft also announced that three companies—Hewlett-Packard, Celestix Networks, and Network Engines—will bundle ISA Server 2004 with their own hardware to create turnkey products. The advantage of a bundle is that buyers don't have to harden the underlying server operating system, and they get ISA Server 2004 pre-installed and ready for configuration.

Hewlett-Packard demonstrated its ProLiant DL320 server, which contains a bundle of Windows Server 2003 and ISA Server 2004, both of which are wrapped in script that on initial boot-up turns off unnecessary services on Windows Server and launches the ISA Server configuration wizard. The DL320 is based on a rack-mounted server the company also offers in conventional configurations.

Celestix, on the other hand, builds its own rack-mounted hardware based on a custom motherboard containing a processor optimized for handling encryption and decryption chores. A Celestix spokesperson said the company plans to include an "embedded" version of Windows Server and its own Web-based interface to ISA Server 2004. The Celestix MSA4000 appliance has a list price of $2,495 and will be available four to six weeks after Microsoft releases ISA Server 2004.

The announcement of ISA Server 2004 is a key component in Microsoft's message to attendees this week at Tech•Ed that the company is sensitive to the rise in security incidents that exploit holes in Microsoft products. Sloss said ISA Server 2004 is designed to avoid firewall misconfiguration, which the company considers responsible for the vast majority of security breaches.

Ease of use was the prime directive when creating ISA Server 2004. Ease of use is accuracy, Sloss said, and ISA Server 2004 is designed to make configuration as accurate as possible. "Ease of use breeds accuracy, and accuracy leads to security," Sloss said.

For more about ISA Server, see "Five Layers of Defense" (and its "Protect the Application Layer" sidebar).

About the Author
Mark Cappel is the executive editor of Windows Server System Magazine.