Akonix Systems Tuesday said it's adding support for the Research in Motion BlackBerry to its messaging security and archiving policy management product known as the Akonix L7 Enterprise Platform.

Set to ship by the end of the month as an add-on module for the Akonix A1000 or A6000 appliances or a software module for a Windows server, the Akonix L7 Enterprise for the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution is intended to let businesses archive BlackBerry Short Message Service and PIN-to-PIN text messaging.

"Regulated companies, particularly financial services, have to archive e-mail," said Don Montgomery, vice president of marketing at Akonix. Now we can archive their BlackBerry messages, too."

The BlackBerry support added to the L7 Enterprise Platform, will let Akonix archive BlackBerry messages without the business having to add client software to either the Blackberry handheld or server. Akonix works with back-end e-mail archive products that include the EMC EmailXtender, HP Integrated Archive Platform, Quest Archive Manager and Symantec Enterprise Vault for electronic message storage.

Other L7 Enterprise software add-ons already available support enterprise and public instant mesaging, online conferencing, server-based fax and VoIP.

The Akonix L7 Enterprise for the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution, which will ship at the end of May, is expected to start at $5 per user.  (Compare messaging security products.)