Barracuda Releases IM Archiving Solution

By Greg McNevin

January 28, 2008: Email and web security appliance vendor Barracuda Networks has announced new features for its hardware firewall which will enable the export of complete instant messaging conversations (IM) to a separate message archiving solution.

The appliance includes an IM server with public IM traffic monitoring, IM archiving and policy management enabling monitor and logging of all internal IM traffic over internal servers, as well as all public IM traffic.

IM channels such as Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Google and ICQ are supported, with traffic archived on a separate device for compliance purposes. Barracuda says this approach both frees up space on the Firewall appliance and enables centralised management of both email and IM communication.

“Most organisations recognise the importance of archiving email messages for both legal and regulatory compliance reasons, however, most do not yet have a practical way to archive their IM traffic,” said Stephen Pao, vice president of product management for Barracuda Networks.

Pao adds that the reality is, IM communication is subject to many of the same regulations as email, making it crucial that organisations archive all communication via this channel.

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