IM Archiving Appliance Released By ArcMail

As social networks become specialised to fit the needs of varying audiences, so is the archiving of all that texting data. ArcMail Technology, an enterprise email archive vendor, has launched a compliance-driven archive for text messages called ArcMail for Instant Messaging.

ArcMail for Instant Messaging, which works with all major IM platforms – including Yahoo IM, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and MSN – is designed to bring compliance, data discovery and liability protection to organisations that rely heavily upon instant messaging. And more enterprises are finding out every day that texting often is the best way to get a hold of someone quickly.

Regulatory compliance

“The proliferation of this communication medium (texting) comes with an increased need to properly address regulatory compliance, e-discovery and liability protection issues,” ArcMail CEO Rory Welch said. “Not having access to this sensitive data over time can be potentially damaging or costly, yet many organisations today have failed to deploy effective archiving and retrieval solutions.”

ArcMail for Instant Messaging encodes, indexes and archives all instant messaging conversations within an enterprise. Archived conversations can be searched, located and retrieved in seconds, Welch said.

The system works in conjunction with Defender, ArcMail’s email archiving appliance, to store all incoming and outgoing instant messaging and email data securely – including all associated links, files and attachments – in a centralised location.

Access to that data is then available via a single interface, making data discovery simple and efficient for busy IT administrators, chief legal officers and other users, Welch said. The appliance is also designed to ensure that all internal communication stays internal behind the corporate firewall and safe from corruption by outside sources, Welch said.

ArcMail for Instant Messaging starts at about $10,000 (£6.431) and comes bundled with an ArcMail Defender email archiving appliance.