Announcing the Forefront Endpoint Protection Community Evaluation Program

A note from our product group:

The Microsoft® Forefront™ team is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for participation in the Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 Community Evaluation Program (CEP). The goal of this program is to provide early adopters a streamlined approach to evaluating Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 (FEP).

For customer and partners who want to efficiently manage implementation, test scenarios, discover and contribute to best practices, the CEP provides a structured approach for connecting with the product group and a community of peers. As a member of the Forefront Endpoint Protection CEP community, you will be asked to participate through the sharing of your learnings, questions, and experiences.

Program Participation

Here is what you can expect from the program:

From Microsoft	From Customers
Guided Learning/Evaluation Theme Activities	Participation in Theme Activities
Product Bits (Evaluation version) **	Implementation of FEP in test environment
Product Group Access via Virtual Chalk Talk	Sharing of Best Practices
Forefront Community Access	Willingness to Share Experience

**Please note: Production support for pre-release code will not automatically be granted to all participants. Requests for production support will be reviewed as part of the application process and will only be granted to a limited number of customers. Minimum requirements for production support include: Signing of support & program agreements, deployment of Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager in production, deployment of FEP in a test environment, ability to provide Microsoft FEP deployment design for review and executive sponsorship.

Want to be involved?

If you are interested in participating in the program, please contact your Microsoft account team or visit the Forefront Connect site (you will need to create a Live ID Account if you do not already have one to join Microsoft Connect) and fill out the Forefront Community Evaluation Program Application survey by September 19, 2010 . Late applications may be accepted but members added after the program launch will be expected to move through the exercises and themes at their own pace.

Please note: Submitting an application does not guarantee participation in this program. All rights of selection are reserved by the Forefront Endpoint Protection CEP to ensure we have the broadest possible distribution of participants.

Accepted applicants will be informed and invited to the portal by September 21, 2010.

Thanks!

Adwait Joshi, Product Manager