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Email Server Feature: Adding Security to Instant Messaging

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TMCnews Featured Article


November 17, 2009

Email Server Feature: Adding Security to Instant Messaging

By Amy Tierney, TMCnet Web Editor


Editor’s note: Email server features are becoming a more integral part of an organization’s backbone. In particular, small- and medium-sized businesses have made great strides to join some of their larger competitors to use the very same IP communications applications. TMCnet takes a look at how Ipswitch, a Lexington, Mass.-based software company, addresses businesses’ various email server needs with its email archiving, protection and instant messaging services. This week, we take a look at Ipswitch (News - Alert) Instant Messaging service.

 
Handwritten notes seem to be a rarity these days. As businesses’ need for instant communication in the form of email, instant messaging and text messaging grows, the days appear to be fading fast for personal notes.
 
More often than not, the only scribble employees might scrawl is a message to themselves on a Post-It note.
 
In an era when BlackBerries and smartphones are as ubiquitous as plain old cell phones, businesses more and more are leveraging real-time unified communications applications, such as instant messaging, to boost their time to action, as well as cut company costs. As a result, enterprises benefit from improved customer intimacy, increased efficiency and faster time-to-resolution, a recent Aberdeen (News - Alert) report “Unified Communications: Gaining a Competitive Advantage While on the Move,” found.
 
Yet, companies could be risking these benefits if the UC system they are using to run the applications is not secure, officials from Ipswitch, a developer of business-class messaging applications, said.
 
Applications such as instant messaging, or IM, while convenient and useful, could expose organizations to security and confidentiality risks because the free services rely on public servers outside the control of the business. What’s more, employees using IM could unknowingly violate confidentiality laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
 
But with the Ipswitch Instant Messaging service, businesses receive a manageable solution that offers built-in security and loads of features. Users can check the availability of their co-workers, include files and documents in conversations and retrieve and print previous conversation. The system also lets users set their current status and spell check messages before they are sent.
 
With Ipswitch Instant Messaging, administrators can log and record all IM sessions, as well as Export conversations to RTF files for archive or search purposes. The system, which runs inside a company’s firewall, can also encrypt conversation logs based on the 168-bit 3DES encryption standard. It also integrates with Ipswitch’s IMail Server, an email messaging solution for small- and mid-sized businesses. 

Further details of the Ipswitch Instant Messaging service are described in an audio presentation. On the site, visitors can take advantage of a free, 30-day trial of the service.




Amy Tierney is a Web editor for TMCnet, covering business communications Her areas of focus include conferencing, SIP, Fax over IP, unified communications and telepresence. Amy also writes about education and healthcare technology, overseeing production of e-Newsletters on those topics as well as communications solutions and UC. To read more of Amy's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Amy Tierney







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