The Vault

Many enterprises rely on IBM Notes platform for their workflow applications. IBM Lotus Notes Mail application is one of them, used for sharing data in the form of emails and attachments. But, Notes administrators face problems related to attachments, mainly because of the exponentially increasing scale of data and lack of control over it. Problems can be further categorized as:

• Attachment size limit: IBM Domino Server administrators can set a limit on the size of attachments and the Server then imposes this limit on IBM Notes Client. In such a case, corporate users turn to consumer file sharing sites like Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive for sharing larger files. Ultimately, corporate users end-up handing over internal data to third-party servers, which are not under their IT’s control. This could lead to data leakage and, compliance, governance and residency issues.
• Access and usage control of shared data: Administrators are unable to control where and how the data is accessed or used. Access and usage control over the data can be helpful to them by the means of geo-fencing, blocking/allowing specific IP addresses and/or enterprise rights management (ERM aka EDRM).
• Keeping track of data: Once an attachment is shared outside corporate boundaries, administrators cannot track that data. It will be helpful if they get to know who, when, how and where the data is accessed.
• Kill switch for shared data: Although IBM Lotus Notes has a Message Recall feature, it has limitations, especially outside the Domino/Notes environment. Once the email goes out of Domino server boundary, the feature can not be used. In case of sharing very sensitive/confidential data, setting expiry for the data or having a kill / revoke-access switch can be very helpful.

Introducing Vaultize Plug-in for IBM Lotus Notes

The Vaultize plug-in for IBM Lotus Notes makes the Notes client more secure and more efficient by providing better control over attachments. This plugin replaces attachments with secure links. Administrator can configure policies for automatic conversion of attachments to secure links.

Plugin features:

• Attachments are uploaded to Vaultize server/cloud quickly using Vaultize global de-duplication and WAN optimization technology.
• Attachments are converted to secure links depending on policy based on size of attachments, recipient address, type of attachments and so on.
• Expiry can be set on links and links can be disabled any time.
• Savings in storage space on the endpoint (i.e. NSF) as well as Domino server because of Vaultize de-duplication technology.
• Files of known types can be viewed in Vaultize’s online document viewer without downloading
• Access rights can be set to links such that only valid recipients can access the link
• Access control using Geo-fencing, IP-fencing and tracking using Geo-tracking and IP-tracking
• Beyond-permeter security using Enterprise Digital Rights Management (EDRM aka Information Rights Management or IRM)

How it works

Once the Vaultize plugin is installed, it can be seen as a sidebar in IBM Lotus Notes.

1. User attaches a file using Attach File button.
2. User clicks on Send button
3. If the attachment file, recipient email address, etc match the user’s policy, the Vaultize plugin starts uploading the attachment(s) to Vaultize server. Upload progress can be seen in the Vaultize sidebar.
4. Once uploading is complete, each attachment is replaced with a secure link and the mail is sent to recipients. A screenshot below shows the actual mail sent to the recipients.