Load Balancing a Rights Management Server Cluster using Network Load Balancing

The Microsoft® IT Showcase website is a great resource for learning how we secure our environment at Microsoft. MicrosoftIT provide a managed highly available Information Rights Management (IRM) solution for employees use worldwide.

A new article has been posted on the ITShowcase website at the following link which details how we implemented with Rights Management Server using Network Load Balancing.

Information Rights Management(IRM) is a feature of Microsoft Office System2003 which enables the author of content (in Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Outlook) to assign use rights for the consumer. For example, it's possible for me to state that you are able to read a document but are unable to print or save it. The most important aspect of IRM is that the use policy will be displayed to the consumer and therefore they will not be able to make the claim that "I didn't know I wasn't allowed to forward that content".

IRM requires Windows Rights Management Services to be hosted on Windows Server 2003 - it's a free download. More information and the software itself can be downloaded here.