EMC Combines Content Management, Security

Say what you want about the challenges of integrating acquisitions, but you can build some interesting things across product lines if you put the nuts and bolts in the right places.

Just ask EMC.

The information systems vendor on Monday said it is offering a combination of content management software from its Documentum acquisition and security software from its Authentica buy to help customers protect their information that gets outside the corporate firewall.

EMC is packaging Documentum Information Rights Management (IRM) Services and EMC Documentum Records Manager 5.3 together to help companies share and secure content.

The software will run on the EMC Documentum enterprise content management (ECM) platform, a software repository geared to help large companies meet regulatory requirements for storing and exchanging corporate information, said Lubor Ptacek, a director of content management in EMC’s software group.

Ptacek said some customers with intensive data need such a product pairing because most records management applications only preserve records stored within a single software system.

This means that any copies of records stored on employee computers, or elsewhere outside the corporate firewall, may be copied, exchanged or manipulated.

Altered files are a cancer for companies in this day and age, where corporate compliance regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA call for records to remain intact.

“When the records expire, when it’s time to expunge the records, it’s very easy to do in the records repository, but it’s not easy to do for any copy of the records,” Ptacek explained. “No one is looking how to expunge the records worldwide.”

Together, Documentum IRM Services and EMC Documentum Records Manager 5.3 can zap files lurking outside the firewall from existence, shielding the company from security or even legal encumbrances.

Records Manager has been kicking around for a couple of years at EMC as one of the products the company acquired when it purchased Documentum.

IRM Services, which EMC gained through its purchase of Authentica, includes policy-based management that lets content owners restrict user access, block printing or forwarding to unauthorized recipients and revoke the ability to open a file.

The software also keeps a complete audit trail of document activity and allows administrators to change user privileges.

EMC Documentum Information Rights Management Services and EMC Documentum Records Manager 5.3 are available now. Prices vary depending on configuration needs, but Ptacek said the average installation price is around $250,000 to $300,000.

EMC competes in he multi-billion-dollar market for content management software with IBM, Open Text, Interwoven, Microsoft and others.

Article courtesy of InternetNews.com