Sybase Looks to Secure Instant Messaging

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Sybase subsidiary iAnywhere is readying mobile
instant messaging and presence capabilities for its Information Anywhere
e-mail suite. The new offering is due out by the second quarter of this year
and will also be available as a standalone component. A 30-day free trial version will also be
available.

Features include support for several enterprise instant messaging systems,
including IBM Lotus Sametime, Jabber XCP, Jabber Wildfire, Microsoft Live
Communications Server and Reuters Messaging as well as public instant
messaging networks via XMPP, which includes support for Google Talk and
Jabber. The company said it is in discussions with Microsoft and AOL about supporting their IM clients.

The new IM offering gives end users access to multiple instant messaging
systems from a single client. Presence (define) is another
feature, giving the client the ability to transmit and receive status info,
such as whether the user is online, busy, away or not available.

Custom
alerts, including audio and vibrate, can be set up for notification of new
inbound messages. The software supports Windows Mobile, Palm, RIM BlackBerry
and Symbian mobile devices.

“For enterprises, the advantage we offer is a common infrastructure
platform,” said Senthil Krishnapillai, product management manager at iAnywhere.
“With Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, enterprises are required to archive content
from any approved device over a period of time. We’re extending that
capability to mobile devices.”

The new iAnywhere technology provides logging
and routing capabilities designed to ensure compliance with corporate
auditing policies.

“Audit logs and the need for organizations to track and manage all
components of their communications, including IM, is becoming very
important,” IDC analyst Stephen Drake told internetnews.com.

On the security side, iAnywhere said the software is compatible with IM
security and management solutions such as Akonix, FaceTime and IMLogic. The
software also supports end-to-end encryption through 168-bit 3DES. Another
feature is remote “over-the-air” installation directly to the device.

Research firm Gartner predicts that by 2010, 90 percent of users with business
e-mail accounts will have IT-controlled IM accounts. A Gartner report
states that “as IM traffic becomes increasingly higher in volume and
potentially higher in value, organizations will need to adopt
enterprise-class IM technologies, as well as IM hygiene services, to ensure
efficient, integrated, reliable and secure use of IM technologies.”

The new IM features are part of larger mobility
push Sybase has made in the past few years. In 2005, it paid $71.3
million for Extended
Systems and its patented OneBridge software server that provides secure
mobile access for applications from personal digital assistants and handheld
computers.

Last fall, Sybase bought Mobile
365 for approximately $400 million. With the addition of Mobile 365,
Sybase laid claim to being the number one provider of mobile messaging and
content delivery.

This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.