Microsoft Corp. today is kicking off a series of worldwide “hands-on labs” to help financial services institutions such as banks and investment firms bring better bandwidth and security to branch offices — without breaking the bank.

While central offices within financial institutions boast high-speed Internet access and complex security safeguards, branch offices often suffer from limited bandwidth and are more susceptible to threats. In addition, as older branch applications rooted in 3270 green screens migrate to Web-standards- and browser-based applications, banks and other financial firms are concerned about how to maximize bandwidth at the branch, while maintaining secure connectivity to headquarters in a security-enhanced environment. A recent boom in branch build-out has exacerbated the problem, as institutions spend an increasing percentage of their budget toward labor versus IT infrastructure.

Microsoft’s hands-on labs, which kick off today in New York and will be held in major U.S. and European financial centers, are workshops on how to use many of the features included in the Microsoft® Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 platform. As part of Microsoft’s Channel Renewal initiative for financial services, the labs will teach senior IT staff and other attendees how to bolster intraoffice bandwidth via the server’s caching features, while also taking advantage of ISA Server’s built-in application layer firewall and virtual private network (VPN) to help secure communications between branch office and headquarters.