AOL partners with IMLogic for IM management

America Online (AOL) on Wednesday announced that IMLogic, a vendor of instant messaging management (IM) software, has become the first third-party vendor certified to provide management, control, and security to AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).

IMLogic’s IM Manager can log and audit IM conversations, scan file transfers for viruses, and control which employees can use IM.

“All the things IT managers generally have for e-mail and other communication mediums we are bringing to IM traffic,” said Jon Sakoda, co-founder and director of products at IMLogic, in Waltham, Mass.

IMLogic said this technology certification is important because it lets companies know that IM Manager has met the standards AOL has set for security, performance, and scalability to run on their network.

Bruce Stewart, senior vice-president, AOL Strategic Business Solutions in Dulles, Va., agreed.

“That’s an important level of comfort for a number of enterprise users as they like to know they have management security and network support from AOL,” he said.

By using IM Manager, network administrators can manage multiple IM platforms including AOL’s AIM and ICQ, Microsoft’s MSN Messenger and Exchange 2000 IM, Yahoo’s Yahoo Messenger, IBM’s Lotus Sametime, and Reuters Messaging.

AOL also has its own network management tool called AIM Enterprise Gateway that is designed for dedicated AIM environments, but Stewart said this product wouldn’t suit companies using multiple instant messaging products. As a result, AOL needed a solution that could integrate management of AIM with other IM products.

“We looked at build versus partner and it seemed prudent to us that we partner with best-of-breed folks that are in this space and enable them by certifying their application,” Stewart said.

Further to this announcement, AOL and IMLogic also said this partnership will allow for the two companies to work together to develop joint solutions for IM in the enterprise such as additional security and management features.