Instant Messaging in corporations - pros and cons

Connecting with others via Instant Messaging (IM) is faster, more efficient and less expensive than traditional communication options. You can easily verify who is available online and eliminate downtime. This makes Instant Messengers ideal and necessary business tools.

Using public Instant Messengers like MSN, AOL, ICQ or Yahoo is an opportunity - they are free and still good enough. But there are risks associated with them, because they are not designed to meet security and privacy requirements of the business. These requirements are imposed by the high sensitivity of corporate data. Some of the problems are:

• Confidentiality - Information exchanged over the public IM can leak to anyone globally. Every user can send a file in seconds to another user all over the world.
• Encryption - Unencrypted data sent over the Internet can be intercepted and read by third parties.
• Reduced productivity - Any user can contact you or your colleagues (employees). Generally this is not bad, but such unauthorized contacts decrease people productivity, because they are distracted and spend time in non-business communication. There is no way to manage, authenticate and authorize users that contact your organization people.
• Viruses - Instant Messengers are targets for viruses and spy ware. IM is also widely used to distribute such security threats.

In order to protect the business data many companies usually do one or more of these:

• Restrictions - Prohibit usage of Instant Messaging in corporate networks.
• Block addresses - Corporate networks block the access to certain IP addresses and domains. Companies usually have to block a whole range of IP addresses in order to guarantee that public instant messaging systems will not be used from corporate networks.
• Intranet Instant Messaging - The companies, which want to use Instant Messaging, install and maintain Instant Messaging systems inside their corporate networks. This allows organizations to benefit from some of IM advantages such as fast communication and use collaboration tools.

The real power of Instant Messaging is when it is used in geographically distributed manner. Some employees can be in one office in North America, another group could be in Europe and some people could be traveling. All of them need to communicate easily and secure.

To benefit from the full power of Instant Messaging a company has to use an Instant Messaging that works through the Internet. But maintaining own Instant Messaging infrastructure, which operates in all countries all over the world and considers different network conditions, is a task that is usually hard to deal with. That's why, according to recent researches, companies do not go and operate their own IM infrastructure.

Another option is the so-called Hosted Instant Messaging.

The Hosted Instant Messaging is very much similar to the web site and dedicated server hosting. A company rents an Instant Messaging network from a provider specialized in the area. The point is that the IM provider could operate multiple IM networks on its servers, but each IM network is isolated from the others. Very much similar with the dedicated server h osting - there are many servers in the data-center, but each of them is isolated from the others.

The key benefits with a Hosted Instant Messaging are:

1. The company benefits from all the advantages of Instant Messaging used on the Internet and its corporate network.
2. The company does not need to manage and maintain complex IM infrastructure.
3. Low costs to operate Instant Messaging.

How to choose a proper Instant Messaging provider?

When looking for an Instant Messaging provider a company should consider some important points:

Security - it has two sides

1. Authenticity of users - since we want Instant Messaging for our company, we want to control the user participation in our network. In other words, we don't want our network to allow intruders to come, join the network and contact the users.
2. Encryption - we are going to use the Instant Messaging from different places all over the world - different countries, airports, shops etc. Our communication will go through many networks. We want to be sure our data is properly encrypted and only the recipient it was sent to can read it.

Configuration and maintenance - we want to spend as less time as possible in maintenance and configuration of our IM network. This is one of the reasons we are going to use a Hosted Instant Messaging. At the same time, the configuration options should be easy to use and powerful enough.

Features - the Instant Messaging has to have a rich set of features. Collaboration features are of a special interest to businesses and organizations. Some of the basic features are: text chat, voice chat and file transfer.

Connectivity - the networks, which the users connect from to the Internet and use the Instant Messenger, may apply different kinds of limits. Public places like airports, shops and Wi-Fi hot spots apply one set of policies for connections to the Internet whereas corporate networks may apply others. The Instant Messenger should be able to connect to the servers and register the user presence status (online, away or busy) in as many network configurations as possible. It should also be able to establish communication channels with the other users in order to exchange files, video and audio.

Communication speed - we need Instant Messaging that works truly in real time. We need text messages delivered fast as well as fast file transfer. This is one of the basic ideas of Instant Messaging - communicate faster.

Cost - the cost to operate and use the Instant Messenger should be clear and well defined. We would like to avoid unexpected expenses.

Brosix Instant Messenger

Brosix offers Hosted Instant Messaging that complies with the high standards for confidentiality and security of the business data.

During the years we have had a chance to work with many Internet applications including Instant Messaging. F inally we have decided to create a brand new product that combines security and rich set of features with extreme user friendliness. We paid special attention to make it fit into business customer's requirements and needs.

Authenticity of users - you have full control over the users who participate in the network. You can control their contact lists as well as block or enable users.

Encryption - an industry standard 256 bits encryption is applied to all communication channels - text chat, voice chat, file transfer etc.

Configuration and maintenance - you don't need to spend even a minute configuring servers or network infrastructure. The only configuration you need to do is to set up rules for your network through a comfortable web based control panel.

Features - Brosix has a rich set of features - text chat, voice chat, video chat, file transfer, co-browse, whiteboard, text conference, voice conference, video conference, voice mail and offline messages.

Connectivity - in order to improve the user connectivity, Brosix applies advanced technologies such as: communicating through proxies and automatic discovery and usage of UPnP gateways. For the cases of very restrictive environments, Brosix has special kinds of servers, which assist in establishing connections between the users.

Communication speed - in order to satisfy this requirement Brosix uses the following techniques:

1. Brosix operates a globally distributed server system to provide the same level of communication speed for all users. Our intelligent routing system selects the optimal communication server for every user.
2. All the communication is compressed. The files you send will be delivered much faster than if you send them via e-mail or download them from a web site.
3. When possible, a direct peer-to-peer channel is opened. This avoids communication slow down due to data traveling all around the world. If both users are in the same corporate network, their communication will not leave the company.

Cost - the cost to use Brosix is well defined with a flat monthly fee based on the number of users in your network. There are discounts for larger networks, so if you want to allow more people to use your network you get even a better price.