Have any idea how many instant messaging clients have made their way onto your users' desktops? Haven't checked or just afraid to ask? The macro answers are shocking, with more than 230 million people using instant messaging on the job and nearly 70 percent using insecure public networks like ICQ or AOL Instant Messenger, according to some estimates.

Not surprisingly, a slew of vendors—such as IBM/Lotus, Jabber, Ikimbo, Bantu, FaceTime, Imici and many others—are delivering enterprise-class instant messaging servers and services, with a major focus on add-on security and streamlined administration. "Security is a huge deal for the IT departments of our customers," said Don Bergal, vice president of marketing for Jabber Inc., the commercial company—with investors included Webb Interactive Services and France Telecom—developing technology on the open-source Jabber protocol. "For the end user, they couldn't care. They just want to get the message. So that's the challenge: You don't want to burden the user or interfere with the end user experience, but you want to bring this into the [IT] mainstream."