White Paper Avoid the Top 5 Epic Fails of Enterprise Endpoint Backup Costly Mistakes Expose Corporate Data to Unnecessary Risk Executive Summary Traditional backup protected information stored on servers in data centers, and it was very manageable. A predictable, controlled, contained environment that underwent scheduled backups and updates. But then the inevitable happened: office employees began saving information to desktops; mobile workers began doing the same with laptops; and backup admins began losing control. Add to that bring your own device (BYOD) and IT consumerization, and the backup market now has shifted to the other end of the spectrum: an unpredictable, de-centralized environment that needs to protect the data stored on endpoint devices such as desktops and laptops while supporting an ever-increasing variety of platforms and user needs. Unfortunately, it s human nature to resist change. So, much to their dismay, many backup admins made futile and usually costly attempts to protect endpoint data using inadequate techniques. Here are the top five.
The Top Five Epic Fails for Endpoint Data Protection Fail #1: Retrofitting Existing Server Backup Not surprisingly, server backup vendors tried to retrofit their own solutions to capture a share of this booming market. But that shoehorn approach simply doesn t work endpoint device backup is the antithesis of server backup. It doesn t give organizations what they need: it requires human intervention, is unreliable and doesn t scale appropriately. Some backup admins still try to make it work, though. And what happens? Users have to manually back up their own data (which most won t do). Users resist backing up and often turn backup off altogether because it slows down their system and prevents them from doing their work. It s hard to restore lost files, so they can t trust it. And backups miss most-recent changes because backups are performed on a daily or infrequent basis rather than continuously. In a nutshell, admins lose the integrity of the backup system and break their promise to users that they can recover lost data. Over ½ of critical corporate data resides on unprotected PC desktops and laptops. Fail #2: Restricting/Prohibiting Data Save on Endpoints Some organizations take a completely different approach. They don t install an endpoint backup solution at all, but instead create policies prohibiting or restricting users from saving data to their laptop or desktop. Unfortunately, for this approach to be successful, users have to change the way they work. This rarely happens. Instead, users ignore the policy and save data to their endpoint device anyway, leaving IT back at square one and potentially exposing the organization to compliance issues and information security risk. Only 25% of users frequently back up their files, yet 85% of those same users say they are very concerned about losing important digital data Fail #3: Tape-Based Backup Some companies attempt to back up endpoint devices to tape, but this approach has many weaknesses. It exposes endpoint data to the same risks encountered by backing up servers to tape: critical business data is stored on a fragile medium subject to damage from heat or light exposure; testing restorability is labor-intensive, so it s rarely done even though admins know it s the right thing to do; doing a full restore, or restoring older versions of files, may require multiple tapes some of which may be outside the tape library or (worse) at off-site storage; a restore could take days simply waiting for the right tapes to arrive; and, in the event of a disaster, tapes may take days or weeks to arrive if roads are closed due to damage. 1 in 25 notebooks are stolen, broken or destroyed each year. Fail #4: Manual, User-Initiated Backup to External Drives Surprisingly, many companies still attempt to protect endpoint data by asking or requiring users to manually back up data to external drives. This approach can be very costly, especially if the company has thousands of employees purchasing and expensing external drives. And, once the drives are in hand, some users will refuse to do it; others will forget. Additionally, even if backup is completed, external drives are frequently stolen along with the computers they were supposed to protect or lost (especially thumb drives). Fail #5: Gluing Together Different Solutions The last most common, mis-guided approach is trying to leverage multiple, existing or disparate technologies to piece together ad-hoc endpoint backup. What usually results is an inconsistent, unreliable tool that doesn t protect everyone or every platform, and is a nightmare for both users and desktop admins alike. The cost of the loss of a single laptop including downtime, support and management time exceeds $49,000. Source: ChannelProSMB. 2012. 1
So How should data on Endpoint devices be protected? Backup admins learned a lot from these failed attempts at endpoint backup. Backup will fail if it doesn t happen automatically, transparently and frequently. Business users don t like to have to worry about technology. If admins rely on them to manually initiate or manage the backup of their data, it likely won t happen. If it does happen, it won t occur with the frequency and consistency needed to ensure adequate data protection. Backed up data needs to be in more than one location. If the backup is in the same building as the servers, and the building burns down, the organization loses everything. Or, if a laptop bag containing both the computer and the external hard drive is stolen, the user loses everything. So a minimum of two copies of data, residing in separate locations, is the best way to ensure good backup. Backup is not just for failed hardware. Crashed disks may be the most widely cited need for backup, but other mistakes, like accidentally deleting a file or overwriting a file instead of using Save As, are actually more common. Backup should be treated as equally as the original. After a failure, the backup is now the only copy of the data. If an organization only writes backups to tape, for example, and for whatever reason the organization can t restore from that tape, it s lost all its data. Garbage in, garbage out. The quality of what s retrieved from a backup is completely dependent on what s put into it. Most importantly at the end of the day, backup is really all about the restore. Backing up data is important, but what users really need to do is quickly, easily retrieve the data whenever and wherever it s needed. It s all about the restore. 30% of companies report they still do not have a disaster recovery program in place; 2 out of 3 feel their data backup and disaster recovery plans have significant vulnerabilities. 2
High-Performing, Invisible Endpoint Backup Set It and Forget It Code42 s CrashPlan is a comprehensive solution engineered to continuously, invisibly protect the data stored on endpoint devices. The solution was designed to address what we believe are the five key tenets of endpoint backup what users and organizations need from an endpoint backup solution. SECURITY End-to-end encryption, starting on device RELIABILITY Continuous Built to withstand technology failures USABILITY Install/configure in <2 minutes Self-service restore Mobile apps HIGH- PERFORMANCE Byte-level data de-dupe Load balancing Compression FLEXIBILITY Cross-platform support Multiple data destination options Security An endpoint backup solution must be secure. CrashPlan s endto-end encryption ensures data is protected by encrypting data first on the device, and keeping it encrypted during transit and storage. Admins hold the only decryption key. Reliability An endpoint backup solution needs to be reliable. Admins and end users need to rest assured data is backing up continuously, silently and without anyone needing to jump through hoops to make it happen. On the flip side, when the time comes, admins need to know users can quickly and easily retrieve data, and continue on with their day. Usability A backup solution needs to be user-friendly. Admins can install and configure CrashPlan in less than two minutes, and easily monitor and manage the entire enterprise from a single, real-time dashboard. They decide how much flexibility they want users to have and then adjust settings accordingly. Admins can even set up profiles to give users as much or as little power as they want based on where the user sits in the organization. High-Performance A backup solution needs to meet demanding performance expectations. CrashPlan s performance is unmatched due to innovative compression, load balancing and multi-threading technologies. And its byte-level data de-duplication only transmits and stores new information. Flexibility Lastly, a backup solution needs to be comprehensive and flexible. CrashPlan supports a variety of OS platforms Mac or Windows, Linux or Solaris. It has mobile apps for ios, Android, Amazon Kindle Fire and Windows smartphones that let users access data from anywhere. With CrashPlan, organizations can implement one solution, with a consistent user experience, for all their endpoint backup needs. CrashPlan also lets organizations back up data to the destination of their choice private cloud, public cloud or both. The organization decides where its data is stored. And CrashPlan users can customize backup sets by a variety of criteria, such as destination or file type. It s easy for end users, too; once set up, CrashPlan runs silently and continuously in the background. Users don t have to manually do anything to ensure their data is backed up. Plus, they re not slowed down by backups. CrashPlan users also can easily access backed up content from mobile devices, and manage CrashPlan settings from them as well. 3
Conclusion Through trial and error, backup admins learned effective endpoint backup needs to be invisible and always working. It needs to mold itself to end users needs, instead of making people change their behavior to accommodate the backup. We at Code42 agree, so we designed an endpoint backup solution that meets all of these critical needs. We built a technology platform that caters to the backup needs of the individual a powerful, flexible, easy-to-use solution that runs silently in the background to protect business data stored on endpoints. And, by following our five laws of endpoint backup, we did it in such a way that it also meets the enterprise s stringent IT requirements. DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE, 30-DAY CRASHPLAN TRIAL TODAY! essentials.code42.com/epicfails OR CONTACT CRASHPLAN SALES www.code42.com/contact CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS 1 MAIN STREET SE #400 / MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55414 / 612.333.4242 / WWW.CRASHPLANPROE.COM/CONTACT / WWW.CODE42.COM Code42, a privately held company based in Minneapolis, Minn., has been developing software to protect the world s information since 2001. Code42 s enterprise backup solution, CrashPlan PROe, is used by thousands of companies around the world to safeguard their data. The company also offers industry-leading backup software for homes and small businesses: CrashPlan and CrashPlan PRO. All products offer multi-destination, cross-platform backup onsite, offsite and online. For more information, visit www.code42.com. WP021303