During a visit to the Netherlands, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corp., talked about Microsoft views on new, integrated management and security products for business users. The Microsoft Forefront security products help companies to solve their most urgent security problems: they protect them against the latest threats, give them safe access to their applications and data, and offer them easy security management. In May 2007 Microsoft will officially announce the Forefront products. Steve Ballmer also addressed Microsoft System Center, a complete family of solutions for end-to-end management of IT infrastructures, which highlight simplicity, pro-activity and efficiency. Together, Microsoft Forefront and Microsoft System Center will ensure optimal and total control of business automation so that companies can make more effective and productive use of their information and business applications.

�Companies face increasingly sophisticated security threats that are making the job of managing IT systems more complex all the time,� said Steve Ballmer. �Microsoft Forefront and Microsoft System Center are designed to meet our customers' needs for comprehensive and integrated security technology that is easy to manage and that enables safer, more reliable access to business applications and information.�