Compliance Conundrum

Analysis: eWEEK Labs takes a look back at compliance products.

Just as security became an issue no organization could ignore, so, too, has compliance come to infiltrate the hearts and minds of IT managers at companies big and small—whether its compliance with regulatory requirements, industry standards or corporate governance initiatives (or, likely, all of the above). Theres no getting around it: Every business needs to make sure that its IT infrastructure is being leveraged to the max to deal with compliance issues.

Of course, there are plenty of organizations out there that want to help your business handle compliance—from software vendors pitching specialized compliance products to analysts whose grids list the leading companies in compliance technology.

Many of these companies pitch "compliance products." But, also like security, compliance cant be achieved with any one product. In fact, Id go so far as to say that theres no such thing as a compliance product. During the last few years, eWEEK Labs has seen features that will help companies come into compliance with various mandates in nearly every product weve tested (such as Watchfires AppScan). And, conversely, every so-called dedicated compliance product weve tested was actually something more general (such as a document management solution) rebranded with compliance in the name.

For an upcoming issue, well dig into past Labs reviews to see how many of the products already in your IT infrastructure can help your business deal with compliance issues.

Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, commentary and analysis on regulatory compliance.