Survey finds more companies investing in rights management

A new survey from Gilbane and Company, commissioned by Enterprise Rights Management vendor GigaTrust, has found increasing use of Enterprise (or Information) Rights Management (ERM) in the enterprise. ERM is a lot like Digital Rights Management, but instead of protecting consumer media like MP3s, it attaches a set of rights to a document that outlines who can read it, where it can go, and even when it expires. This typically works by requiring recipients to download a small client component. When they open the document, the document checks into a server at the source company to see if the recipient has the right to see the document. By forcing the document to check in, it can prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

This client component might have been holding back growth in the past, but according to an article on the survey in Manufacturing Business Technology, Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPPA regulations are driving adoption. Companies have a legitimate growing concern about protecting documents with confidential information both internally, and especially when the document travels outside the company firewall.

In fact, the survey found that 25 percent of respondents were using ERM now because of growing confidentiality concerns. Among the other companies offering IRM solutions are Liquid Machines, EMC and Oracle.

For more information:
- read the Manufacturing Business Technology article
- download the Gilbane report