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Here's some good news for corporations and even universities that want to ban Skype traffic. Akonix, a provider of Instant Messaging (IM) security and compliance products has released a management appliance that can put a measure of control over the popular VOIP Skype software. The Akonix L7 Skype Manager is a hardware appliance that can detect Skype traffic and allow IT admins block all traffic or allow traffic only to certain IP addresses or subnets on the network.

L7 Skype Manager is said to allow IT departments to set and enforce policies on the use of Skype over company networks. The appliance installs at egress points, and detects Skype traffic, managing connections based upon policies set up by the IT administrator. For example, companies may allow the use of Skype by international employees and branch offices, while blocking it for finance, marketing and auditing departments. There is also features to do logging and reporting on inbound and outbound Skype traffic, and flagging blocked attempts as unauthorised usage.

The L7 Skype Manager goes  up to 1,000 seats for USD 3,495, or up to 10,000 seats for USD 4,995. Expect your ISP to be using this to manage their traffic very soon too.

Controlling Skype traffic with Akonix appliance source