Select an IM Server to Build a Private Instant Messaging System

This article will introduce how to choose an instant messaging server to create a private and secure IM network for company use. Mainly there are 4 basic requirements.

1. Select an IM server which is completely hosted and maintained inside house.

Different to public IMs like MSN, Skype, when you on the way to select an IM system for your company use, the program which will let your IT department build and maintain the whole IM system inside the company turns out to be an import factor. In other word, everything is under your nose.

2. Select an IM server which offers encryption for all communications through the IM system.

To be an instant messenger which is especially for office use, will the conversation be strongly encrypted? Will the private and sensitive data be encrypted? So before make a decision to choose an instant messenger, try to know how the IM system will will be encrypted is very important. This will extremely ensure the security for the future use of the IM network.

3. Select an IM server which is simple to maintenance while powerful to use

An IM server should be wisely designed to meet the company needs. Includes powerful functions and full controls to make the IM system stable and reliable, meanwhile it only requires little efforts to setup and maintain the IM system.

For example, the IM which has the ability to integrate with Windows Active Directory is a must have feature for medium and large company. It will save a lot of time and effort to create user accounts for the new messenger users.

Remote desktop sharing becomes popular and proved to be useful in recently, the user can be assisted by the IT staff instantly, the customer can be supported effectively, so choose an IM includes the feature will help a lot.

4. Select an IM server can be easily backup and transferred to a new machine.

After the IT administrator has created the users accounts, roles and made proper configurations for the instant messaging server, it is important to backup all the server configurations and export the existed settings to a file, in case the server machine may be encounter a disaster and crash, you can quickly re-build the IM server on a new server machine in less than 10 minutes. Just re-download the server program and import the configuration files which has backup before. In this way, to reduce the affect to daily communication due to the crash of server machine.