Second Life Enterprise to focus on security, apps

Big news from Linden Lab: The company has officially launched an open beta for Second Life Enterprise, and says it is planning a marketplace for enterprise applications and virtual goods such as collaboration tools and business environments.

Linden Lab says the services can be used for events, product prototyping, and simulations. But one of the most interesting aspect of the announcement relates to security. Second Life Enterprise lets companies run the virtual world on their own network, much like a corporate intranet. Companies which had previously shied away from the virtual world because of concerns about proprietary data or 3D models living on Second Life's public-facing servers can now host the world within their own security perimeter, and according to their own technical and work policies -- for instance, the service offers LDAP integration and administrators can have employees use their real names for avatars.

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Justin Bovington, the CEO of Rivers Run Red, was positive about the open beta. His company operates Immersive Workspaces, a turnkey corporate meeting and training service that has been part of the Second Life Enterprise private beta. In an email to the Standard, Bovington said:

We see the behind-the-firewall solution as a very important next step. It's giving the market what they've wanted: security, privacy and the ability, working with people like Rivers Run Red, to develop bespoke applications. This was the main point picked up and highlighted by LL's competitors. We're going to see a greater adoption level now, as it was one of the main things that would derail the corporate buy-in. We also think that Corporates will create a mixture of hybrid behind-the-firewall closed-off spaces on their Intranets and a private, gated Internet-accessible space for their partners and collaborators.

However, Bovington sounded a note of caution on the Second Life Work Marketplace. "It has be less Xstreet, more Wall Street. It has to reflect relevance, rather than drowning us all in deluge of content: clothing, furniture and avatars," he wrote, adding "if [Linden Lab] attracts the right people to develop these apps, this could be the tipping point."

Linden Lab says pricing for Second Life Enterprise starts at $55,000. The beta will run through Q4 of 2009, with general availability expected during the first half of 2010. The company said the Second Life Work Marketplace has a closed alpha planned for the end of Q1 2010, and the product launch expected in the first half of 2010.

Sources and research: Metanomics.net, Second Life Enterprise website, Linden Lab/Second Life press release, email interview with Rivers Run Red.

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