Microsoft and Secure Islands today announced that Microsoft is to acquire Secure Islands. Secure Islands is a provider of automated classification for documents and further technologies for protecting information. The company already has tight integration into Microsoft’s Azure Rights Management Services (RMS), a leading-edge solution for Secure Information Sharing.

After completing the acquisition, Microsoft plans full integration of Secure Islands’ technology into Azure RMS, which will further enhance the capabilities of the Microsoft product, in particular by enabling interception of data transfer from various sources on-premise and in the cloud, and by automated and, if required, manual classification.

Today’s announcement confirms Microsoft's focus and investment into the Secure Information Sharing market, with protecting information at the information source (e.g. document) itself being one of the essential elements of any Information Security strategy. Protecting what really needs to be protected – the information – obviously (and if done right) is the best strategy for Information Security, in contrast to indirect approaches such as server security or network security.

By integrating Secure Islands' capabilities directly into Microsoft Azure RMS, Microsoft now can deliver an even more comprehensive solution to its customers. Furthermore, Microsoft continues working with its Azure RMS partner ecosystem in providing additional capabilities to its customers.