Akonix has recently published an interesting document focused on the need for unified policy management as it relates to unified communications systems. Here a couple of excerpts from the paper (published here with permission):

“While the ability to create, publish, and communicate a single set of policies governing electronic communications will not be difficult, the task of enforcing those policies across multiple modalities of communication by each employee presents a challenge. There are products that address individual modules. For example, outbound content compliance products are capable of screening files and other communications that employees send out of the company. E-mail filtering products have long protected organizations from inbound spam and outbound inappropriate content, and of course, each application contains its own directory integration and capabilities for managing who can use which facility. The problem is that the adoption of unified communications will require development of a centralized, unified policy and risk management platform that allows administrators to create policy once and apply and enforce everywhere.”

“The advantage of employing unified policy management over many point products is that all policy application and enforcement relies on a central database of policies applied to a single version of the corporate directory. An organization simply cannot duplicate directories for each separate policy engine. The online directory sits as the foundation of unified policy, with the unified policy management platform on top of it. In this manner, companies will be able to point to “a single version of the truth” to auditors and inspectors. The cost benefit of managing a central unified policy manager is also compelling, as it reduces the need for multiple instances of directories, security devices, archiving platforms, etc. applied to each communications medium. This in turn, reduces administrative, management, and operations cost for the support IT department.”

The paragraphs above reiterate what I have been saying for a long time: organizations can simply be more efficient and minimize their legal exposure by using integrated policy systems for managing all aspects of their messaging infrastructure. While many decision makers want to choose best-of-breed, point solutions for providing these capabilities, and while there are some good reasons for doing so, there are probably more good reasons to deploy a single, unified management system for all aspects of messaging. This will become even more important as unified communications is more widely deployed.

Whitepapers

• Selecting Effective Virtual Directories
• Best Practices for HP Servers and HP Enterprise Virtual Array in a Microsoft Exchange
• Compliance, Protection, Recovery: A Layered Approach to Laptop Security
• Endpoint Security: Data Protection for IT, Freedom for Laptop Users
• IT Departments on Data Security: A Research Concepts Survey
• Laptop Security Tool Helps Allina Hospitals Track 97% of IT Assets

View more SOFTWARE whitepapers

Webcasts

• Managing the End User Experience-A Real World Example of Success
• Lowering the Cost of Email Archives
• Google Webcast: Why archive email? Top challenges and best practices
• High Availability for SQL Server 2005 Using Array-Based Replication and Host-Based Mirroring Technologies
• Technical Overview of Exchange Server 2007 with HP Servers and Storage
• Bringing Order and Security to your Mobile Workforce: Corporate Mobility Policy and Device Management On-Demand

View more SOFTWARE webcasts

Special Reports

• Application Performance Management Executive Guide
• Executive Guide: Building a Service Oriented Architecture
• IT Buyers Guide To: Collaboration

View more SOFTWARE special reports