The company is ready to go live with an extended version of its Perimeter Manager managed email security service that will see it use technology provided by IMLogic Inc to help counter the potential network vulnerabilities caused by instant messaging use from behind the enterprise firewall.
Services built around Postini’s deployment of IMLogic detection and blocking tools can be used to block or control staff use of public IM services from work. The system also enables the archiving and logging of instant messages as they pass through the network and before they cross to IM services such as MSN, Yahoo, and AOL.
Instant messaging is now considered to be on the cusp of becoming as ubiquitous, and therefore risky. IM, which runs over public networks, can transmit worms faster than email, and allows confidential or damaging information to be sent out without necessary security checks.
Director of product marketing for Positini, Andrew Lochart, said that up to 85% of businesses have IM users and that to date the IT department has not had much in the way of visibility of who is using these services. Lochart described the move as a significant extension to the existing service line, and one that sets it apart slightly from Postini’s chief rival, MessageLabs. Pricing is pitched to start at $33 per user per year.
Initially, Postini will position the new managed service as an extension of its enterprise services to existing customers, and intends pitching it to new prospects as a separate service line from January 2006. The company will be phasing in support for other IM networks such as Jabber, as the managed service develops.
Another forthcoming service line, due for release during the fourth quarter of the year and known as Postini Archive Manager, brings various message archiving and flexible retention policy services that are designed to appeal to customers that are looking to ease regulatory and compliance requirements for both instant messaging and email.
The system will file messages for search and retrieval by sender, by recipient, and by key word, Lochart said, and uses technology designed by Stellent. Pricing for that service has not yet been finalized and it is unclear at this stage whether charging for the managed service will be set by ingestion rates of messages into the archive, or by the volume of messages under management.
