Systems integrator Asynchrony Solutions next month will unveil software, developed with the Department of Defense, that collects multiple collaboration tools into one secure online workspace. Envoke, which will ship in April and be priced at $20,000 per server, presents a single user interface in which other vendors' collaboration tools, such as chat rooms, instant messaging, and file sharing, can be aggregated and accessed.

Last year, the Defense Department created similar technology, called Gateway To Virtual Collaboration, to collect its many collaboration tools into one UI. It uses Microsoft's Digital Dashboard and NetMeeting, First Virtual Corp.'s videoconferencing software, and RealNetworks Inc.'s RealPlayer for streaming audio. Microsoft and First Virtual products also included instant messaging. The Defense Department hired Asynchrony to commercialize the gateway product. In return for transferring the intellectual property to Asynchrony and subsidizing development costs, the Defense Department received a license to deploy the commercial product.

Besides the collaboration tools listed above, Asynchrony has also built hooks for Envoke into other products that are popular within the military: the open-source Collaborative Virtual Workspace and Ezenia Inc.'s InfoWorkSpace. Asynchrony plans to build connectors to products that are prevalent within the enterprise, such as America Online and Microsoft instant messaging and Groove Networks, making Envoke an aggregation point within heterogeneous environments. "The more complicated the environment, the more the need to pull everything into a single environment," says Bob Elfanbaum, VP and co-founder of Asynchrony.

Envoke, which recently passed Defense Department security tests, provides authentication of all users and supports HTTPS, which means all files and texts can be encrypted while moving over the Internet. The department plans a wide-scale deployment of Envoke in the next couple of weeks. Within an enterprise, Envoke could boost security for popular instant-messaging software, such as AOL's and Microsoft's. "It's a secure messaging platform," says Weili Su, an analyst at International Data Corp.

Asynchrony raised $750,000 in its first round of funding last year and is seeking up to $1.5 million to commercialize Envoke. Gateway Venture Partners is leading the second round of funding.