At AIIM/info360 last week in Washington, D.C., I talked to a new vendor who is taking pure records management functionality to the cloud.

This is in stark contrast to just two years ago at the ARMA conference, which focuses mainly on records management issues, where I saw a panel hosted by Alan Pelz-Sharpe of the Real Story Group. At the time, most records managers in the room were deathly afraid of the cloud.

Today, vendors are beginning to require pure records management functionality in the cloud and there is a growing demand for it says Rick Roberts, founder and CEO of RecMan, a cloud-based records management start-up focused on bringing records management discipline to Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Docs.

Roberts says he's not trying to sell anyone on the cloud. He's simply trying to help records managers who were forced to go with Google Docs internally (or were there by choice) to have some control of the situation. He says that Google doesn't offer any real tools for records managers and he's filling in a gap.

Roberts explained that RecMan provides a records management layer on top of Google Docs with a file plan, retention schedule, the ability to place a hold on a document, controlled destruction management and so forth--all the tools you would expect in a mature records management system.

As more companies like this develop, it will be more commonplace to have traditional records management functions associated with cloud applications. It's a growing need and RecMan is just one vendor trying to fill that need.

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