Microsoft had taken their first approach to Information Rights Management (IRM) by introducing Windows RMS with Windows Server 2003. This was fully compliant with Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-1. The updated version of Windows RMS was renamed as AD RMS and reintroduced with Windows Server 2008. It continued to grow with features and was included with every new Windows Server version after that. Microsoft also released Azure RMS (included in Azure Information Protection), which can be used in a hybrid cloud environment to protect data.
As I stated earlier, AD RMS is not the solution for all data security requirements. In an infrastructure, there are other things attached to data security. The first step of protection is to decide who has access to corporate network and resources. This falls under perimeter defense and hardware/software firewalls...
