Cathleen Moore

Instant messaging is gaining momentum in the enterprise, often times through employees' grassroots adoption of public IM networks used without the consent of the company's IT department. With this viral uptake in mind, vendors are moving to fortify popular public IM services with security and other features designed to meet corporate needs.

Enterprise instant messaging (IM) software vendor WiredRed Corp. announced a development kit designed to let developers build custom client/server or Web-based IM applications.

Documentum Inc. on Tuesday expanded the breadth of its enterprise CM (content management) line with the addition of two products designed to enable collaboration integrated with CM across business boundaries.

Microsoft Corp. and Groove Networks Inc. took their relationship a step closer on Monday with the announcement that the companies plan to integrate Groove Workspace with Microsoft SharePoint Team Services. The goal of the effort is to improve information sharing among project teams that traverse corporate boundaries, according to Microsoft officials.

Coinciding with the shipment this week of the 4.1 version of its WebSphere Portal, IBM Corp. announced a series of new partnerships and a resource Web site for portal developers.

Bowstreet Software Inc. on Monday introduced its Factory 5.1 framework designed to allow enterprises to leverage Web services in building customized portals.

With unwanted e-mail messages continuing to flood corporate messaging systems, vendors are stepping up efforts to thwart spam from a variety of fronts.

Google Inc. has rolled out several new features to its Search Appliance, an integrated hardware and software device designed for use behind corporate firewalls. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company also announced a slew of new enterprise customers including The Boeing Co., Cisco Systems Inc., and The World Bank.