Instant Messaging Secures More Acceptance Among Corporate IT

Consumer instant messaging products,most notably, AOL's Instant Messenger,have addicted millions of users who have taken their IM habit from home to work, where security concerns immediately cropped up.

Now, companies such as Boston-based IMlogic are coming to the fore with technology to make instant messaging more secure, archivable and enterprise-friendly.

IMlogic recently unveiled IM Manager, which maps IM screen names to corporate identities so IT can more easily figure out who on the network is using IM and report on their activity. IM Manager, an upgrade to the company's existing IMLog product, is a complete solution that securely archives and reports on messages, said Jeff Whitney, IMlogic's vice president of marketing and channel programs.

IMlogic executives said the product works with popular instant messaging products from America Online, Microsoft and Yahoo, and with more corporate-friendly offerings such as Sametime from IBM's Lotus Software. "Our product gives IT visibility into IM usage. They drop our server in behind the firewall and it'll show them the number of users and how much traffic is being generated," said Francis deSouza, president and CEO of IMlogic. "They can turn off file transfer or keep viruses out."

IM management products from FaceTime Communications, Foster City, Calif., have enjoyed popularity too, especially since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 mandated that companies track and store all internal electronic communication thoroughly. The legislation, passed last July, "has been good for business," said Glen Vondrick, president and CEO of FaceTime, whose IM Audit archives and controls internal IM use. But at the same time, workers can continue to use the IM client they have come to love. When initiating an IM chat, users get a dialog box on their screen alerting them that their conversations are being recorded and archived, Vondrick said.

Meanwhile, many vendors are turning now to the channel to help sell corporate IM solutions. FaceTime and IMlogic are both looking to solution providers with experience in IT infrastructure to recommend, sell and install their products.

"IM is the most rapidly growing communication mechanism ever and caught companies totally by surprise," IMlogic's Whitney said. "Now they're scrambling because IM poses significant risks not only from viruses diving in through IM but because it allows people to share files in an unsecure manner."

"IM will develop like e-mail with the big vendors at first focusing on core systems capability," said Matt Cain, vice president of The Meta Group. "Smaller companies will initially do peripheral products, then companies like Lotus and Microsoft will step in."

IBM's Lotus Software, which has pioneered the use of more secure corporate IM, is taking a close look at compliance issues, said Bethann Cregg, manager of advanced collaboration solutions for the Cambridge, Mass., company. "We stay abreast of that and are helping customers implement the kinds of solutions they want," she said.