Yum… a whole lotta NSA-Interception spooky goodness, plus third-party information protection requirements…

As an aside, I’ll stick with open standards and OTR; I need tighter security and management than traditionally available in enterprise products.

news.com.com.com.com

The days of companies using unsecure consumer technology for instant messaging are numbered, according to AOL and online conferencing company WebEx.

AIM Pro Business Edition (PBE), launched on Thursday, is an IM service aimed at business users who need tighter security and management than traditionally available in consumer products.

Corporate IM systems do exist. However, the makers of AIM PBE said that, unlike other products, their service does not require a dedicated local server, but is hosted online. That makes it more flexible to manage and deploy, they claimed.

“There is a reason enterprise-grade IM (EIM) software hasn’t taken off: Companies simply don’t want to buy and maintain complex IM servers. Instant messaging belongs on the Web,” said David Knight, vice president of messaging solutions at WebEx.

[…]

AIM Pro, which was launched in June, came equipped with SSL encryption and integration with Microsoft Outlook. However, it was still a free service for individuals.

[…]

But the extra functionality comes at a price. Per-user licenses for AIM PBE start at $5 per user for small numbers, but the price will drop fairly rapidly with larger numbers, Knight said.

Control issues

For the money, managers get administrative controls managed over the Web. They also get increased security by applying policies for encryption and automatically scanning files that users transfer, reducing the fear that IM will open holes in the perimeter of the company’s network. The service blocks “spim,” or spam delivered by IM, an increasing problem in consumer IM services.

[…]

Managers can also configure URL and content filters to keep intellectual property or confidential information inside the company.

Because the service is run remotely and available on-demand, companies don’t need to run and maintain dedicated servers and take care of maintenance issues. However, they do have to trust WebEx to hold their data remotely.

“Counterintuitively, some of the people most concerned about logging and archiving appear to prefer off-site logging and management,” Knight said. “Customers can choose how to log and archive information group by group, as some privacy laws vary.”