British firm claims to crack compliance headache

British software company Open-Tec has developed what it claims is a ‘market disrupting' technology that will offer managers more efficient data storage and more effective compliance.

Cstore is a software repository that Open-Tec's chief technology officer Robert Houghton described as answer for all managers looking to deal with data from disparate data sources. "If it's electronic, it can handle it," he said. "Cstore is able to store instant messages, mobile voice, email and any business application."

He said that a key part of Cstore's appeal was the fact that it avoided a major pitfall of many other compliance products, notably the ability to by-pass controls by using administrator privileges.  "It's possible to trick so-called secure systems if you're logged in as administrator you can't do that with Cstore.

But, Houghton said, it was more than just compliance, the use of Cstore would negate any requirement for back-up software by data managers. "If it's architected in the right way", he said, "there's no need for any other software."

Houghton said that Cstore had been designed to support BSI BIP 0008, the British compliance standard which was aimed at maximising the evidential weight of data. He claimed that as yet there were no other products out there that supported this standard.

The product has been well received by potential customers, said Houghton. "Compliance managers are interested in the legal aspect, storage managers are interested in the storage side but we've been surprised by how much interest there has been in the product."

Justin Speake, CEO at Bloor Research said "Governance, risk and compliance -GRC - is a board level priority for business which has seen significant investment and focus for many of the major vendors during the past couple of years. Open-Tec's top-down holistic approach means that Cstore offers a paradigm shift in the way this critical business issue can be addressed."