Instant messaging was never invited to the communications party in the enterprise - it crashed the party, and now IT managers must find a way to control IM before the dining room table gets smashed.

Radicati Group recently estimated that IM is being used in 85% of all companies worldwide. The total number of unsecured public IM service users (the AOLs, Yahoos and MSN Messengers of the world) in the workplace are expected to exceed 125 million by mid-2004, up from 100 million users nine months ago, and five times the number of users from 2002.

The meteoric rise of public IM users is a direct result of the strong perceived benefits on the part of IM users. Finding the status of a co-worker or friend via a persistent Internet or intranet connection, being able to send a short text message in real time to anyone "alive" on the server, and the lack of friction many users face when installing and adopting the public IM service all contribute to IM's success. Technology built into Windows XP (Windows Messenger) does not require technical support or training. If an employee's operating system  does not already include the Messenger client (or another service is desired), those with Internet access and the knowledge of installing an application on a PC are minutes away from being up and running.

But the risks of leaving IM unmanaged in corporations are well documented. According to a Radicati study, threats to enterprise security (including viruses and worms introduced via IM), the need to comply with industry or federal regulations, and concerns about the inappropriate release of confidential data (see "Top 5 IM security risks") will cause nearly 20% of all IT managers to take steps to block employees from using public IM services when they are registered with the enterprise identity management infrastructure.

Yet completely shutting down public IM usage likely will elicit phone calls from avid users within hours, if not minutes. Many highly productive employees rely on their buddy lists to accelerate workflow and manage mission-critical processes. When their lifeline to partners and team members worldwide gets closed down, they frequently don't want to return to old communications and messaging technologies, such as the telephone, fax and e-mail.