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Sybari Launches Tool to Secure IM

Sybari Software launched the first utility this week for Microsoft's instant messaging and presence platform, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003.

Sybari, which specializes in messaging security, is providing virus scanning, document filtering and message content scanning for Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003.

Sybari calls its product Antigen 7.5 for Instant Messaging. The company is using the same Antigen name and 7.5 version number that it uses for its current generation of e-mail anti-virus tools, which use multiple anti-virus engines from multiple vendors.

Sybari is among the first vendors hoping to find demand for an ecosystem of products around Microsoft's fledgling Live Communications Server, previously known as Real-Time Communications Server and by the code-name "Greenwich." Microsoft launched Live Communications Server 2003 with the rest of the Office System in late October. In September, Microsoft announced that Sybari, HP and IPC, which provides integrated multimedia communications for financial traders, were all working on products or services surrounding Live Communications Server.

Sybari executives cited a Yankee Group estimate that there are more than 25 million business users of IM in the United States. According to Sybari, most of those users are "stealth users," operating IM software without IT's knowledge or oversight. Sybari officials believe that most Fortune 1000 companies will implement an enterprise IM solution in the next 18 to 24 months.

Antigen 7.5 for IM is supposed to help give companies with Microsoft's Live Communications Server a way to further secure IM communications. "Although [IM] gives employees access to real-time communication, it also means that companies now have employees exchanging information and files both inside and outside of the company network," Tom Buoniello, Sybari's vice president of product management, said in a statement.

The Sybari product is supposed to bolster the centralized security and message logging capabilities of Live Communications Server with tools to allow administrators to apply content and file filtering policies.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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