Podcast: Microsoft security? Experts applaud it

It seems to be the trend for highly regarded security experts to applaud Microsoft's security efforts. In blogger Mitchell Ashley's Converging on Microsoft podcast, author and security analyst Michael Rothman said he thought other huge software companies should watch Microsoft and take notes, particularly when it comes to Patch Tuesday.

"Relative to Apple or Oracle or SAP or any of these other huge software companies. Microsoft is really a model citizen in terms of how structured their program is, how aggressive their program is. The amount of their investment in their security program is bigger than most of the security companies out there - that's just their investment. ... Microsoft is really a model that a lot of other software companies should be looking to emulate," he said.

While he was careful to point out that nothing is perfect, he also applauded Microsoft Vista - saying it was light years better than XP when it comes to security.

"The reality is Vista, for all its warts is certainly architecturally much, much, MUCH better from a security standpoint. But with that enhanced security, you are usually compromising on usability and that's where a lot of people continue to grumble."

(Interestingly, Rothman himself is a Firefox and GoogleApps user.) Guess that mean's he's off the hook with next week's big Office-related Patch Tuesday .)

Rothman isn't alone. Security expert Joel Snyder gave the hats off to Microsoft Security for its work on network access control during a Network World chat last summer, saying the software giant is "making all the right moves."

"What we want is for a simple clean easy client to be built into Windows, and we want it to work with every product we buy. Microsoft should own this market; no one in the network security business wants to write software for Windows when Microsoft is saying `we can do that.' Or if they do, they're idiots. In any case, interoperability for NAC is Microsoft's bus to drive, and they have been making all the right motions."

Listen:

Go to the Microsoft Subnet home page for more news, blogs, opinion.

More Micronet blog posts:
The 20 most useful Microsoft sites for IT pros
Troubleshooting IP Networks for Microsoft exams
An insider's look at Microsoft Systems Management
Tips, tools and advice for Microsoft VoIP
Microsoft PowerShell and security, under the hood
Enterprise deployment guides for Vista SP1
What you can and cannot do in Server Core
Windows Server 2008 Management and Maintenance tips
Mitchell Ashley's Converging on Microsoft blog
Mitchell Ashley's Converging on Microsoft podcast
Marvelous March giveaways from Microsoft Subnet and Cisco Subnet
All Micronet blog posts

Sign up for the bi-weekly Microsoft newsletter. (Click on News/Microsoft News Alert.)