Why is user data backup such a pain?

By Brandon | January 6, 2012 @ 11:40 am

Identifying (and dealing with) the two main culprits behind user data backup woes.

• At the end of this article we will offer a free 10 user license of our software to you – but, first, we’d like to answer this one simple question – WHY IS USER DATA BACKUP SUCH A PAIN?

Most businesses, enterprises and organizations still experience a large variety of issues with user data backups.

The main issue, of course, is that backups are not reliable, making data recovery a tedious task (if possible at all) and this leads to a whole host of problems that your company, your IT department and your users can do without.

We can attribute the pain of user data backup to two MAIN culprits.

Data Backup Software | Security & Compliance

By Natasha | November 17, 2011 @ 11:05 am

What you should be looking for in endpoint business data backup software for your business

Data Backup Software: Enterprise Data Protection Requirements | Security & Compliance

Download our White Paper that outlines 8 Strategies for Endpoint Data Protection

Data Backup Software | Business Requirement 4

Security & Compliance

Data backup software must equip organizations with secure data backups and data recovery, the solution must ensure that all business data is protected from unauthorized and unlawful access by third parties and must provide effective endpoint device protection.

Data Backup Software | Intuitive Data Backup Reporting

By Natasha | November 15, 2011 @ 9:32 am

What you should be looking for in endpoint business data backup software for your business

Data Backup Software: Enterprise Data Protection Requirements | Intuitive Data Backup Reporting

In our first two posts we discussed the importance of:

Data Backup Software | Effective Backup & Recovery

By Natasha | November 14, 2011 @ 11:31 am

What you should be looking for in endpoint business data backup software for your business

Data Backup Software: Enterprise Data Protection Requirements | Effective endpoint data backup & recovery

In our last post we discussed the importance of complete central management in a data backup solution for enterprise environments. (Read it here)

This post explores the technical requirements that provide effective endpoint data backup & recovery. As this post is part of our series on data backup software requirements, you may want to read our previous post first.

When selecting endpoint data backup software, IT must ensure that data backup and recovery is effective, secure, customizable and that the solution provides features that make data protection in large environments across multiple users simpler and more cost-effective.

Data Backup Software | Choosing the right business solution

By Natasha | November 8, 2011 @ 11:54 am

What you should be looking for in endpoint data backup software for your business

Data Backup Software: Enterprise Data Protection Requirements

The data backup software market has experienced significant growth over the past few years due to the obvious requirement for business data loss prevention, intensified legal consequences of lost or mismanaged business data, the prevalence of users working remotely, and the growth in number of organization’s using laptops or other mobile devices as their primary system.

Gartner has reported that at least 28% of all corporate data resides exclusively on its laptops (and increasingly on other endpoint devices). Gartner has also highlighted endpoint user data security as one of the imperative considerations faced by IT today (ID #: G00211731)

The demand for effective endpoint protection, in the form of data backup software, in Enterprise environments has led to a number of products focused on solving this problem. There has also been significant movement in the market from an acquisition and investment perspective, solidifying industry analyst predictions that the endpoint data protection space is growing at a significant rate.

This proliferation of different data backup software solutions has resulted in a smorgasbord of options for IT Managers and CIO’s. How does one distinguish which features are most important, and without spending months on testing, how can IT ensure that their business data is going to be effectively protected?

Quick Fix: The seven key data backup software features

The Problem: User-managed Data Backup solutions don’t work

Any backup solution that requires user involvement isn’t going to work- particularly in an enterprise environment. Attempting to manage and monitor multiple users- ensuring that they are backing up their business critical data to a central server or removable device is a seemingly impossible task that not only effects IT productivity but does not comply with data protection laws and regulations in large organizations (and particularly in industries such as the public sector, healthcare and finance.)

Cibecs Data Risk Assessment App

By Natasha | October 31, 2011 @ 10:48 am

Giving Business IT Endpoint Insight

The Data Risk Assessment App is an easy solution to planning around multiple data protection challenges facing IT today.” says Cibecs Marketing Manager, Brandon Faber.

“The tool gives businesses insight into what data resides on endpoint devices. in 15 minutes it runs an audit showing how much data resides on laptops & desktops, what types of files users are storing, the average amount of data by file type and the average amount of data each user has on their machine.”

Companies worried about the security of their files need not worry, the App is completely secure and runs in their environment – it doesn’t report on individual users or their data details. “We are vigilant when it comes to protecting business data.” Says Faber, “One of our first considerations was ensuring that the App poses no risk to the security of organizations’ information-  as an endpoint data protection company this is something we are very familiar with.”

Once the App has done a quick data audit on a sample group of PCs, businesses can pull their data report which details the following:

Corporate Governance Compliance and Data Protection

By Natasha | October 28, 2011 @ 1:23 pm

Data Protection & Corporate Governance Compliance in South Africa

Compliance & Legalities around business Data Protection in South Africa

Protecting data correctly and effectively is a paramount business continuity imperative. Not only do organizations with ineffective data protection strategies face the immediate costs and productivity interruption of data loss, they leave themselves vulnerable to data theft, unauthorised access to confidential files and are liable for legal penalties and criminal consequences due to failed corporate governance compliance.

Responsibility for protection of data cannot be left as IT’s problem- stewardship and buy-in is required at an executive level to avoid negligence, prevent reputational damage and to implement a solution that addresses areas of vulnerability.

The reality of data mismanagement is increasingly consequential. Failure to address your organization’s risks with urgency only increases exposure and the probability of suffering financial and legal penalties.

Often however, Acts and Reports are long-winded, making them difficult to digest and complicated to drill down to tangible and actionable items. However, without securing your data and ensuring that your data protection covers all the bases- the personal and organizational consequences can be detrimental.

We’ve broken down the main Acts and Reports pertaining to data protection in enterprise environments and placed them in the table above as an easy reference, there are certain guidelines & requirements that all companies must follow:

Cibecs Business Data Protection Resources

By Natasha | October 13, 2011 @ 12:30 pm

A guide to our Endpoint Data Backup Resources

 
The Cibecs resource center has multiple best practices, videos, case studies and blogs on endpoint data protection.

To make navigating our Cibecs resource center simpler, we’ve compiled a list of all our resources by topic.

An introduction to Endpoint Data Protection

Over 50% of companies have lost data in 2011

By Natasha | September 26, 2011 @ 4:07 pm

Cibecs 2011 Business Data Loss Survey Results Released

The Cibecs 2011 Business Data Loss Survey has been released, uncovering the major IT challenges when it comes to protecting endpoint data (located on company laptops and desktops) and increasing our understanding of where data loss vulnerabilities and risks lie.

“In 2011 over 50% of the 250 companies surveyed had lost business critical data,” says Cibecs CEO, Richard Dewing. “Even more concerning was that 10% of companies stated they would not be able to recover business data if lost – while 37% estimated that business data recovery in their organization would take a day or longer (and up to a month in some cases).”