I also like the fact that these devices could be a boon for small- and medium-sized businesses. This group in particular seems to have the most trouble meeting SOX requirements, and more and more compliance vendors are targeting this sector with less-expensive products that are easier to deploy, use and administer.

How do they do that? Some provide scaled down versions of their products and others package their funtionality in a network-ready appliance. Appliances are typically thin rack-mounted, nearlly plug-and-play devices with pre-loaded software that requires minimal configuration.

They are becoming the rage for vendors going after the SMB market, and for good reason. The cost a fraction of enterprise-class systems and they can be loaded for a variety of applications, from storage management, security, and now compliance.I also like the fact that these devices could be a boon for small- and medium-sized businesses. This group in particular seems to have the most trouble meeting SOX requirements, and more and more compliance vendors are targeting this sector with less-expensive products that are easier to deploy, use and administer.

How do they do that? Some provide scaled down versions of their products and others package their funtionality in a network-ready appliance. Appliances are typically thin rack-mounted, nearlly plug-and-play devices with pre-loaded software that requires minimal configuration.

They are becoming the rage for vendors going after the SMB market, and for good reason. The cost a fraction of enterprise-class systems and they can be loaded for a variety of applications, from storage management, security, and now compliance.

Last week,IMlogic brought out the IMlogic IM Manager SMARTGig 6000 (SG6000) instant messaging management appliance. The device is set up to secure networks against IM attacks and comply with regulatory requirements for message management.

The message compliance space seems particulary suited for appliance solutions, even for larger enterprise installations, but especially for SMBs. Intradyn earlier this month debuted its ComplianceVault06 Email Archiving & Retrieval Appliance. And more recently, Barracuda unveiled its Barracuda IM Firewall, which provides an IM server coupled with IM traffic identifcation and archiving functionality.

And let's not leave out Jatheon Technologies, which also this month brought out a pair of ixArmor Compliance Guard network appliances for messaging compliance. These all-in-one devices claim to capture, index, archive, search and monitor all electronic messages.

If your company is still one of the hold-outs for automating its messaging compliance activities (and according to several recent surveys, the hold-outs are in the majority) consider the appliance route.I also like the fact that these devices could be a boon for small- and medium-sized businesses. This group in particular seems to have the most trouble meeting SOX requirements, and more and more compliance vendors are targeting this sector with less-expensive products that are easier to deploy, use and administer.