Sun Debuts Compliance Offering

Sun Microsystems Inc. this week will announce the availability of its StorEdge 5310 Compliance Archiving System for enterprises seeking to achieve greater compliance assurance.

Featuring new ISV support for enhanced application interoperability and enterprise content management, the system was developed using Suns StorEdge 5310 NAS (network-attached storage) appliance. It supports offerings from iLumin Software Services Inc., Mobius Management Systems Inc., AXS-One Inc., Stellent Inc. and Vignette Corp., said Sun officials in Santa Clara, Calif.

The archiving system is designed to meet data management requirements of regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Securities and Exchange Commissions Rule 17a-4 and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) by providing nonerasable WORM storage-retention policy enforcement, authentication and access controls for Fibre Channel and SATA (Serial ATA) configurations.

Meanwhile, for those customers who prefer a proactive approach to compliance to ensure critical assets are being protected, FrontBridge Technologies Inc. this week is launching its new Secure Email service, which offers identity-based encryption and does not require a password or a generated key for a recipient to read a sent message. A new AutoDecrypt option being developed will decrypt secure inbound replies without logging out of the network, said officials at FrontBridge, of Marina del Rey, Calif.

"Weve clearly entered into a regulatory and compliance phase in IT. I think everybody realizes that," said John Buccola, director of IS at Alliance Imaging Inc., based in Anaheim, Calif. "Between [regulations] and recent news of [data loss at] Bank of America [N.A.], LexisNexis and ChoicePoint, its hard not to be concerned about security and privacy. Its a matter of taking initiative."

Buccola said he is using FrontBridges service at the gateway level to keep customers HIPAA-sensitive data out of third-party hands.

Other vendors are paying attention to the growing need in enterprises for help with compliance as well. Last week, Iron Mountain Inc. unveiled its new Compliant Records Management program, which combines risk assessment and other bundled services into a six-step program to create and manage a compliance routine.

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