THEORY & PRACTICE

Open Standards Bolster IM

by Lowell Rapaport

• Also in this issue: Web Browser as Platform

While instant messaging (IM) networks such as AOL Instant Messenger and Microsoft Instant Messenger are popular for personal use, there are drawbacks to using them for business applications.

For one thing, there's a security risk running internal communications on a third-party server. Also, proprietary IM networks suffer from poor interoperability, which creates problems for enterprises that want to use IM to communicate outside the firewall.

Companies bringing IM technology in house should choose IM technology based on open standards. This will ensure interoperability and security. IM standards have built-in support for encryption and enable integration of IM into enterprise applications.

The Jabber IM protocol employs a client/server-server/client architecture. A Jabber client communicates only with a Jabber server implemented either behind a firewall or with an ISP. Jabber servers interact with each other on a peer-to-peer basis. Jabber is open source, so clients and servers exist for almost every computing platform. Software vendors developing commercial Jabber implementations include Denver-based Jabber Inc. and New York-based Tipic, which have developed for Unix and Windows, respectively.

Jabber standard messages are encapsulated in XML. "Using XML lets Jabber's IM architecture be used as a general-purpose, real-time communications tool for application integration and Web services," says Joe Hildebrand, chief architect at Jabber Inc. Current deployments of technologies like Web services are based on HTTP and don't allow real-time communications between applications.

Another emerging IM standard is Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE). Both have the advantage of being approved Internet standards, and SIP is not limited to IM. SIP can be used to initiate any real-time communication, including voice over IP, media streaming or video conferencing. Thus, a single real-time communications client could be used for multiple forms of communication.

SIP's peer-to-peer architecture makes it flexible, says Jörgen Björkner, chairman of the SIP Forum and vice president of concept development at Stockholm-based Hotsip, a communications infrastructure company. "SIP is designed to keep the intelligence of the network close to the user. It scales well and uses the domain name system to locate other SIP clients. SIP client software can be installed on any communication device, such as mobile phones, handheld computers or telephone switchboards." SIP enables all communications to take place over the Internet.

In early October, IBM Lotus gave SIP a significant endorsement by embracing the protocol for the latest upgrade of its Sametime collaboration software.