Market dynamics often mean good news for users when it comes to technology products, especially when competition drives prices down, but there are other dynamics that work to your benefit; for instance, when vendors partner to deliver more features and services to round out their offerings.

The market for compliance-related software and services is still young, and you've probably heard me warn here before not to expect these products to meet all your requirements. Not to say that all compliance applications are one-trick ponies, but most are designed to accomplish specific compliance tasks, like archiving, or monitoring, or reporting.

Acknowledging this, vendors are starting to partner up in the exploding compliance market and looking to each other to add value to their respective products. And that's good news, indeed. With the continuing hot market, vendors are realising two things: Companies that buy technology to assist compliance efforts often have other needs that the product being purchased does not address; and that their can be natural synergies between products from different vendors. Nothing new among technology vendors but it is the sign of a healthy and growing market.