Microsoft leads the IT assault on info management

The big – and not so big - names in the IT industry are on the march – and they're heading for the information management, knowledge management and content management sectors. In corporates and other large organisations, these disciplines were once the preserve of dedicated teams who developed systems apart from the IT department; now IT managers are being asked to get to grips with the skills involved in dictating company-wide policies on archiving, access, and compliance.

For example, Symantec – a company that made its name with virus protection and security products for PCs and networks – has just released Symantec Information Foundation 2007, a product suite that will "protect against the loss of sensitive proprietary or regulated content by real-time filtering of messages."

SIF 2007 provides a common framework for enforcing content control policies across an enterprise, from email gateway security to archiving. The suite is tightly tied in with Exchange server, and many of the new breed of information management solutions are coming out of companies who are business associates of Microsoft. After all, to be cost effective, information management must take account of, and build on, the infrastructure that already exists.

Microsoft's Sharepoint portal server is increasingly at the heart of specific vertical solutions, because it has a range of tools that make access privileges and content distribution easy to manage. Legal firms in the US, for instance, have been evaluating SV Technology's LawPort for SharePoint product, which offers an information management suite, incorporating intranet, portals and internet, that's designed for big legal firms.

These are precisely the companies, with vast numbers of partners spread over widely-distributed networks, that need robust information solutions with 100% security.

A second generation of solutions is emerging, and if these can be built on technologies that come from two or three reputable, reliable suppliers – IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, say – then ultimately the cost of operation will be slashed as training for those who operate and manage the systems is more widely disseminated.