Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway, is a computer software solution
that provides secure remote access to corporate networks for remote employees
and business partners. It incorporates remote access technologies such as
reverse proxy, virtual private network, DirectAccess and Remote Desktop
Services. UAG was released in 2010, and is the successor for Microsoft
Intelligent Application Gateway which was released in 2007. UAG is part of the
Microsoft Forefront offering. Microsoft is ending mainstream support for UAG in
2015. It is being replaced in part by the Windows Server 2012 R2 feature Web
Application Proxy. History
Unified Access Gateway was originally developed by a startup company named
Whale Communications in Rosh HaAyin, Israel. One of the challenges it tried
to solve in the 1990s was to develop a remote access solution based on a VPN
mechanism but without direct network access from the remote client to the
corporate network. This type of solution was specifically required by the Israeli
military and government, to meet national information security standards.
The technology developed was called the Air Gap and the communication between
the external network and internal network was managed by two separate 1U
rack-mount servers linked together by a memory bank accessed through a SCSI
interface. On 18 May 2006, Microsoft announced that
it would be acquiring Whale Communications. Microsoft completed the
acquisition on 26 July 2006. Following this acquisition, the product was
renamed Microsoft Intelligent Application Gateway Server 2007. With
this version, the SCSI-based Air Gap was dropped, and the product was unified as
a single-server appliance. Instead of using the Air Gap as the security
barrier, IAG used Microsoft's ISA Server firewall product. IAG was offered to the
public as a pre-installed appliance by Celestix Networks, IVO Networks, PortSys
and nAppliance. In 2009, with the release of Service Pack 2 for IAG, the
product was also offered directly to the public from Microsoft in the form of a
virtual appliance - a pre-installed VHD which could be run on Hyper-V or VMware
Workstation. In April 2008, Microsoft announced that
the next generation of IAG will be named Forefront Unified Access Gateway. The
product was released on 24 December 2009. Service Pack 1 for this product
was released on 3 December 2010. Update 1 for Service Pack 1 was released on 17
October 2011 Service Pack 2 for this product was released on 6 August 2011.
Service Pack 3 was released on 19 February 2013. Service Pack 4 was
released on 27 November 2013. On 17 December Microsoft have announced that
Microsoft will not deliver any future full version releases of Forefront UAG
and the product will be removed from price lists on 1 July 2014
Technical overview Microsoft UAG provides secure socket
layer virtual private network, a Web application firewall, and endpoint
security management that enable access control, authorization, and content
inspection for a wide variety of line-of-business applications.
Included are customized granular access policy and security capabilities for
Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server, Microsoft
Terminal Services and Citrix Presentation Server. The product is
highly customizable, and almost any application can be published With UAG.
Out of the box UAG Server is able to work with many authentication vendors
such as Mi-Token, RSA Security, Vasco, GrIDsure, Swivel, ActivCard and Aladdin.
It also works with numerous authentication systems and protocols
such as Active Directory, RADIUS, LDAP, NTLM, Lotus Domino, PKI and TACACS+.
Possible customizations include single-sign-on, as well as look-and-feel
dynamic customization. With the current release of UAG with Update 2, the
product also offers support for many third-party systems such as Linux,
Macintosh and iPhone. The product also supports Mozilla Firefox.
UAG performs particularly well in providing a portal for web applications,
such as web-based email and intranets, but it also provides full SSL VPN
network access using either ActiveX or Java components. These components can
also perform end-point compliance checks before allowing access, to test for
attributes on the PC such as domain name, antivirus definitions date or
running processes. The inclusion of DirectAccess with UAG
has been a big influence on its success, as DirectAccess provides a very seamless
VPN-like integration and is in high-demand by many organizations.
DirectAccess is part of Windows, but UAG provides a very user-friendly
configuration interface for it, making it easier to configure for
administrators. UAG also adds two additional components - DNS64 and NAT64,
which make deploying DirectAccess in an existing network easier, without the
need to deploy IPv6. The product is sold in appliance form,
from vendors such as IVO Networks, PortSys, Celestix Networks, and
nAppliance. It is also offered as an installable DVD. The product can be
installed on Windows Server 2008 R2. Version History
See also Microsoft Forefront
References Further reading
External links Official website
Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway Product Team Blog
Forefront Edge Security forum – Direct Access, UAG and IAG forum