One of the best reasons to backup endpoints like laptops, tablets and smartphones has nothing to do with restores, it has to do with deletion. Endpoints are the most vulnerable to theft. They are left in airport security lines, Starbucks and other locations. In most cases they are picked up, reformatted and sold on E-Bay. But what if the thief wants more than just the hardware, what if they want access to the data on that laptop?
Endpoint backup provides security and comfort for users, IT and management that corporate assets are protected. If the user accidentally deletes a file or their system is infected with ransomware, IT can quickly recover the system, assuming they have a viable endpoint protection strategy in place.
Another area where endpoint protection helps the organization is if that endpoint is stolen. If the endpoint protection software provides a remote wipe capability then IT can trigger a deletion of corporate data the moment that endpoint appears on the internet. The data is not lost however, because the endpoint protection software has backed up the data. When the user obtains a new laptop, IT can restore the user’s data to that new system. IT should look for solutions that can just restore data or restore all the information like applications and configuration settings, enabling the user to get back to work quickly.
The remote wipe capability also helps if the organization lets the employees go. In this day of bring your own device (BYOD) the device technically belongs to the user but it contains corporate data. IT can trigger the remote wipe upon notification of user dismissal, again securing corporate information. In a BYOD situation though, it is important that the software can discriminate between corporate data and personal data.
Remote wipe isn’t the only reason to backup endpoints but device loss is something that comes up frequently.
The problem with endpoint protection is legacy solutions impose a significant requirement of both capital and IT time to implement and maintain. They also require unique features to work properly across limited bandwidth connections while not interrupting user’s work.
An ideal solution for protecting endpoints is the cloud but the cloud by itself won’t solve the problem. The answer is to combine the cloud with advanced software that seamlessly protects end-user data while at the same time providing IT with control and oversight of the process as well as the data.
To learn more about endpoint data protection watch our on demand webinar “Protecting Your Backup Blind Spot – Endpoint Data Protection.” In the webinar we discuss the challenges with endpoint backup, how to overcome those challenges and demonstrate exactly how IT can manage the backup of thousands of endpoints. Most studies indicate that over 60% of data on laptops is unique and is unprotected, yet there is no solution in place to address the problem. Watch our on demand webinar to learn how to fix this backup blind spot in a cost effective and time efficient manner.
George Crump is the Chief Marketing Officer at VergeIO, the leader in Ultraconverged Infrastructure. Prior to VergeIO he was Chief Product Strategist at StorONE. Before assuming roles with innovative technology vendors, George spent almost 14 years as the founder and lead analyst at Storage Switzerland. In his spare time, he continues to write blogs on Storage Switzerland to educate IT professionals on all aspects of data center storage. He is the primary contributor to Storage Switzerland and is a heavily sought-after public speaker. With over 30 years of experience designing storage solutions for data centers across the US, he has seen the birth of such technologies as RAID, NAS, SAN, Virtualization, Cloud, and Enterprise Flash. Before founding Storage Switzerland, he was CTO at one of the nation's largest storage integrators, where he was in charge of technology testing, integration, and product selection.
StorageSwiss.com - The Home of Storage Switzerland 