Kicking Tires on World Backup Day: A Five-Point Inspection for Endpoint Backup

By Rachel Holdgrafer, Business Content Strategist, Code42

Living with the constant threat of data breach or loss, large organizations have comprehensive remediation plans designed to guarantee speedy data recovery and business continuity. March 31, 2016 is World Backup Day—the perfect time to evaluate your endpoint backup strategy to insure you’re ready if the worst happens.

A viable backup plan is a lot like having car insurance. While car insurance can’t prevent an accident, it willreplace the crumpled bumper and shattered headlamps after you’ve been rear ended, or the entire vehicle if you’ve been totaled. In the same way, endpoint backup allows you to recover several lost files, everything on the laptop, or the entire enterprise—to a point in time as recent as moments ago.

Here are five inspection points to consider as you evaluate your endpoint backup solution.

Point #1: Do you have continuous protection—everywhere? The modern workforce works when, where and how they choose; so they need endpoint backup that protects their files continuously, whether they are in the office or on the road. Choose centralized, cloud-based endpoint backup that works across geographies, platforms and devices. It should be simple to manage and scale, and offer powerful features to solve other data collection, migration and security problems.

Point #2: Does it work with Macs, Windows and Linux? The modern enterprise is no longer a PC-only environment. Employee preference for Apple devices has increased Mac’s market share in the enterprise—and there’s no going back. Choose an endpoint backup solution that protects a “hybrid workplace” that includes Windows, Linux and OS X laptops and desktops and offers a consistent user experience across all platforms. Make sure your backup solution restores files to any computer or mobile device—without requiring a VPN connection.

Point #3: Will it enable rapid response and remediation? When protected/classified data goes public, response time is critical. Choose an endpoint data backup solution that provides 100-percent visibility and attribution of file content on any device. This enables IT (and InfoSec) to quickly identify a threat, mitigate the impact and determine whether data on compromised devices—including those that are lost or stolen—requires the organization to notify agencies or individuals of breach. If there is a reportable breach, 100 percent data attribution prevents over reporting of affected records.

Point #4: Will it support fast data recovery in a dangerous world? Endpoint devices—and the humans who operate them—are the weakest link in the enterprise security profile. The 2016 Cyberthreat Defense Reportfound that 76 percent of organizations were breached in 2015, making it essential to plan for data breach and your recovery before it happens. Choose an endpoint backup solution that ensures rapid recovery of data—no matter the cause, without paying a ransom, without the original device, without the former employee. Endpoint backup is an investment in business continuity, risk mitigation and peace of mind.

Point #5: Does it let you decide where to store encryption keys? True data privacy means only the enterprise can view unencrypted files. Choose an endpoint backup solution that deduplicates locally rather than globally, encrypts data in transit and at rest, and enables you to hold encryption keys regardless of where your data is stored. On-premises key escrow ensures that only you can view decrypted data—keeping it safe from the cloud vendor, government surveillance and blind subpoena.

Proactively evaluating your endpoint backup processes at least once a year positions your enterprise for quick and total recovery before data loss or breach occurs.