Instant Messaging, secured?
Lot's of businesses are asking me about Instant Messaging, is it safe for my business?
They see the advantages, presence information, quick and easy access to information locked in people's heads, etc. What they are truely concerned about though is the security of it. I have one client who is dependent on MSN Messenger. Each and every person in the firm is on MSN/Live Messenger. which is cool for a small firm, but the otherday, the receptionist/clerk girl had several IM windows open, one with her boss and another with a freind. Do you see where this is going? Well, inadvertently, she typed away some confidential info about one of their clients, thinking it was going to the boss, when in fact it went to the freind. Now, I'll avoid the obvious Policy and Proceedure debate, we all know that she should have been more careful, least of which she does. She is a VERY GOOD ASSISTANT and a VERY SMART PERSON. She made a simple mistake. So this is where I come in.
Client: "Bill, we are dependent on IM, we live on it. I can be in a meeting, and without getting up and walking out to talk to someone, I can pick their brain. Saves us time, energy and ultimately money. But I need something I can trust is safe and secure."
Bill: "Well, let's take a look and com up with an answer".
So we looked around. Initially I looked at Microsoft's Live Communications Server. We use this internally and it is VERY GOOD. It uses either Microsoft Messenger 5.1 or Office Communicator. It is secured inside the network, and there is a CLEAR sepertion of IM'ing. I cannot confuse it with Yahoo, Live, AOL or Google. I could incorporate some federation and pay for external IM connectivity, but for us it's not a good fit. From what I understand Trillion can use an LCS account, and that would enable a single interface, but for reasons mentioned above, we want a clear seperation of IM environments. Ultimately though, the client does not have a machine running Windows Server or Windows Small Business Server, so the cost to implement LCS just shot up.
They do have a simple Linux box with Samba as well as a dedicated XP Pro box for file and application data sharing. So I found a product called Wildfire. It's Open Source and has an open source client spark. It is based on Jabber, so it's highly developed and stable. It has a ton of features, including potentially federation/public IM connectivity. It has Presence info, and it has the ability to tie into Asterisk/FreePBX. Wildfire can run on Windows or on Linux, not sure about Mac. The best part is that is can be secured and isolated to just your network. What about Mobile users, well a VPN and a Mobile client is all it takes, now it's just like they are right there...
So yes, there is a secure IM for small businesses. In this case less than 5 people going in everywhich direction...
As an SMB Consultant, I probably will take them to LCS when they get a little bit bigger and they have a Small Business Server. Until then, Wildfire, Spark and maybe mJabber. It's alternative, but with a limited budget, I have only alternatives. Sometimes its creativity that sets one apart from others...and builds that Trusted Advisor Role.