Microsoft also will brand all its identity products, except, AD, with the Forefront name. The next version of , which is now delayed until early 2010, will be called Forefront Identity Manager.

ILM is Microsoft's platform for identity synchronization, certificate and password management, and user provisioning.

A forthcoming identity platform , which pushes Microsoft's claims-based identity platform into the cloud, also will fall into the Forefront portfolio.

Microsoft will front it all with Stirling, its centralized management console for all the Forefront products.

Stirling also will , including Operations Manager and Configuration Manager. And Microsoft said third-party partners would develop for Stirling, including Brocade, Juniper Networks, Kaspersky, Tipping Point and RSA.