Apart from grappling with management issues plaguing IM, companies need to look at the monetary side of things. This is especially evident when it comes to securing your instant messaging environments.
At present, there are several business-class IM packages in the market.
Secure instant messaging is a likely new revenue stream for some companies, for example France's Secway.
Secway offers two types of secure IM products that support MSN, Yahoo, AOL and ICQ--SimpLite is free for personal users while corporate users can opt for the licence-based SimpPro (which costs US$25 for one to 24 seats).
According to Secway, SimpPro and SimpLite can be used simultaneously with clients such as Trillian. "Simp does not replace your original client but acts as a proxy for securing it," according to the company.
Secway claims that SimpPro uses RSA keys (up to 4096 bits), ElGamal/DSA and Elliptic Curve for authentication, while encryption involves AES (up to 128 bits), Triple-DES, CAST or Twofish. The company is currently testing beta versions of Simp for Exchange.
The European company isn't alone in this space...even PGP, a company that's risen from the ashes, has jumped on the bandwagon.
In an interview with ZDNet Australia, PGP chief executive Phillip Dunkelberger made reference to IM as an area which has significant potential for innovation. "Messages of all types need to be secure," he said.
Will you be adding instant messaging to your 2004 IT spending list or is it way off your radar? Talkback below or e-mail us at edit@zdnet.com.au.
