Vendors upgrade instant messaging offerings

Computerworld - Several enterprise instant messaging (IM) products are debuting this week, promising business-critical features, including strong security, built-in antivirus protection and improved spam control.
Vendors GTV, IMlogic Inc. and SurfControl PLC say the products will give new capabilities to businesses that want to incorporate secure, managed IM services for their workers.
New York-based GTV yesterday launched Sonork Enterprise IM, which allows tight integration with database-driven Web applications.
Waltham, Mass.-based IMlogic yesterday unveiled IM Manager 5.0, which adds security, content filtering and antispam protection to existing control, reporting, archiving and compliance capabilities.
Version 5.0's new features include out-of-the-box virus-scanning capabilities, policy enforcement with archiving and logging, selective file-transfer controls to reduce the risk of virus propagation, and content filtering using keyword-blocking and notifications. The application uses an open and extensible architecture that allows it to integrate with other security products, IMlogic said.
London-based SurfControl yesterday announced an enterprise-targeted IM filter product to help IT managers control IM and peer-to-peer technology use inside their companies. The product will be available in mid-May as a separate application that customers can layer with other SurfControl filtering products.
SurfControl also announced an improved version of its 6-month-old E-mail Filter application, adding several features targeted at enterprise users.
The new capabilities in E-mail Filter 4.6 are designed to help companies identify and stop spam at the network edge, centralize and better manage security, and increase monitoring and analysis, according to SurfControl. The software features dictionaries to filter e-mail content in six languages and capabilities to help identify unauthorized files or images that have been embedded in other documents.
SurfControl E-mail Filter 4.6 starts at $18 per user, based on an installation of 500 users. Anti-Virus Agent and Anti-Spam Agent are optional plug-in components.