You’Re Not as Backed Up as You Think Introduction

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Inrdcin

IT departments typically congure user PCs so all work lesare stored on network drives. But most users circumventthis approach, storing many les on their hard drives. Ad-ditionally, laptops users oten work outside the oce andoine, synchronizing only sporadically and keeping theircurrent work on the local drive.As a result, data is requently residing on local drives, whereit is not backed up. I a computer experiences a hardwareproblem or is lost or stolen, the consequences to the orga-nization can include exposure to regulatory and legal risks,lost user productivity, and nancial loss.

D  Rik: Chllenge f D Bckp

Many companies are under the assumption that, becausetheir users connect to the corporate network, the data onthose computers is saely backed up. The general impres-sion is that user spreadsheets, documents, presentations,and other les are routinely stored on a designated net-work drive, which is automatically backed up by IT.But this is hardly the case.Users oten preer to saveles to local drives, andwith the increased avail-ability o broadband andwireless connectivity,many users do some or allo their work of-network outside the oce. The question is what hap-pens to that data i a com-puter crashes or is lost orstolen. IT departmentsmust be prepared or suchcircumstances, as theseevents are airly common.For example, when it comesto computer crashes, a 2006Gartner study ound that annual ailure rates (AFRs) ordesktop computers are about 5 percent in a computer’srst year, and 12 percent in its ourth year.I a ailure does occur, data recovery eforts can be imple-mented. I this is done internally, it can be a serious timesink, as it usually requires that the hard disk be removedrom the crippled machine and installed in another sys-tem. Alternatively, the process might require complicateddata recovery tools that operate at the byte level to extractdata rom a corrupted or damaged drive. Either approachessentially diverts an IT staf’s eforts rom other, morecritical chores.Alternatively, a damaged system can be sent to a companythat specializes in data recovery. But the cost o using sucha service is oten hundreds or thousands o dollars or moreper incident, and as a result, this method is usually under-taken only in special situations, such as when an executiveloses critical nancial inormation or strategic plans.Another potential data loss with desktops involves com-puter thet where the entire system (hardware and data) isremoved rom the oce. There are additional problems when laptops are involved.By virtue o their mobility, of-network usage increases thechance o data not being backed up. That can be trouble, aslaptops are more susceptible to problems.Notebooks have higher (relative to desktop systems) AFR o 15 percent in the rst year and 22 percent by the ourth year.Additionally, laptops are more prone to thet and loss. TheFBI, Gartner, and others peg laptop thet rates at betweenthree to seven percent. The laptop thet problem is pervasive. Fity percent o the403 senior managers surveyed in the Computer SecurityInstitute’s 2007 Computer Crime and Security Survey saidtheir organization experienced laptop or mobile devicethet within the last 12 months.

ExECutIvE summaRy

• Growing volumes o valuable corporate datais routinely maintained on desktops, laptops,and mobile devices outside the oce• Organizations are under increased pressureto meet new data retention and protectionlaws and regulations• Data backup and restoration tasks are otentime-consuming and complex• Data recovery rom of-site tapes oten ex-ceeds practical (and acceptable) restorationtime limits• MozyPro™, a SaaS ofering, provides an easy-to-use, secure, and robust way or an indi-vidual, small company, or large enterprise tobackup and restore data

y’re N a Bcked upa y think

By Salvatore Salamone,Executive Editor, Zif Davis Enterprise

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And very ew o those laptops are ever recovered. In act,some studies suggest that only about two percent o sto-len computers are returned to their owners. Laptop thetand loss extend to all types o organizations. For example,a 2007 Associated Press news story reported that, on aver-age, between three and our FBI laptops are lost or stoleneach month.

Cneqence f D L

Organizations expose themselves to a variety o risks andpenalties when data is not backed up properly and endsup lost.For example, companies can be ace regulatory viola-tions. All U.S. public corporations are subject to reportinglaws and regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley. Companiesthat do business internationally are oten subject to simi-lar laws, such as Japan’s J-SOX, France’s LSF, Canada’s Bill198, and Australia’s CLERP 9. In many cases, loss o datathat must be retained in support o these reporting lawscan carry signicant nesand penalties. There are also legal risks.Changes to the FederalRules o Civil Procedurehave produced what are commonly reerred to as neweDiscovery laws, which mandate that companies involvedin litigation produce e-mail, documents, instant messages,and other electronic inormation. They must also showhow electronic records are stored, retrieved, and deleted.A company in litigation that cannot produce subpoenaedinormation would risk losing the case or could ace nesimposed by the court.User e-mail brings added complications. Even though Ex-change servers are routinely backed up, mail in a user’sdesktop or laptop PST le may not be. I the user does notback this le up, and the system crashes or is lost or sto-len, this could raise problems in litigation i e-mail recordsare subpoenaed.Lost e-mail could also mean that valuable corporate inor-mation is gone orever. At a minimum, the user is withouthis or her past e-mail messages, which can result in theloss o many hours o work as the user tries to re-establishmessage threads with colleagues and recreate the impor-tant inormation. There are also nancial considerations i data is lost. Inparticular, business can sufer i customer data goes miss-ing. Here, the damage can be two-old. First, there can bea direct loss o business by virtue o not lling orders andlosing the ability to contact customers with promotions ormarketing materials. Second, there can be a loss o custom-er condence, particularly considering today’s concernsover identity thet.

Chllenge ih trdiinl Bckp apprche

All o these actors simply reinorce the need or all data tobe backed up securely and routinely. But there’s the rub:Backup is oten a complicated process or both IT depart-ments and users.Many backup solutions are complex, requiring manyadjustments. And retrieval o a particular le, e-mailmessage, or data is requently labor-intensive. In mostcases, a great deal o user intervention is required toback up particular inormation, such as a newly createddocument or a PST le.Additionally, mobile users must oten synch their datamanually when they return to the oce. In many cases,their time in the oce is hectic, as they are pulled in manydirections or meetings, ling paperwork (such as ex-pense or sales reports), and simply doing their jobs. Theymay not have the time to synchronize and back up theirdata, too. There is also the IT staf’s time to consider. Many backup so-lutions use tape or archiving and saeguarding data of-site.Restoration o lost data rom tape is time-consuming andtedious (requently requiring the mounting o many tapesto nd the specic le or e-mail). I tapes are stored of-site,there is the additional time actor o physically retrievingthe tape and bringing it to the oce to locate the data.While multiple tapes are mounted and searched to perorma retrieval, users lose time. I a le is lost permanently, there isadditional time required to recreate the inormation. Theseactors combine to compound lost worker productivity.Additionally, data can also be lost permanently i a backuptape ails or someone accidentally records over a tape.

slin: ss Bckp

Taking the risks, challenges, and potential problems relatedto improper backup into account, Zif Davis Enterprise con-ducted a round-table discussion in February with senior ITmanagers and CIOs rom nancial services, government,entertainment, insurance, and various other organizations. The round-table meeting ocused on Sotware-as-a-Ser-vice (SaaS) backup.

Organizations expose themselves to a varietyo risks and penalties when data is not backedup properly and ends up lost.

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While all o the attendees were amiliar with SaaS, therewere many diferent ideas presented as to how SaaS, ingeneral, ts in with or difers rom other services, such asoutsourcing and management oferings. (See: SaaS at aGlance: How it compares to other services.)Even with the diverseviews as to how SaaSrelated to these otherservices, most round-table participants saidthey were already usingSaaS in some orm. Forinstance, one participantsaid his organization usesSaaS “when we have asmall group that needsan application.”Several managers notedthe benets as a reasonthey have adopted SaaSor some applications. “It iseasier to use than settingup a [traditional] applica-tion and conguring a PC,”said one participant.Some participants notedinhibitors to SaaS. “Ourcompany culture prevents[its] use,” said one manager.Interestingly, one tradi-tional argument againstSaaS in the past has been perormance. But none o the attendees raised this issue – perhaps due to theubiquitous availability o relatively low-cost broad-band services.Others elt that their users would preer SaaS overinternal solutions. Even with internal service levelagreements (SLAs), “there has always been a gentle-man’s agreement with internal IT departments,” saidone manager. He noted that users are used to tierso support. I a problem arises with an executive, IT jumps on it. I an oice worker has a problem, theirhelpdesk ticket might sit idle or days beore any ac-tion is taken. As a result, many o the participantsbelieve users would like the idea o having a dedi-cated number o a SaaS service provider to call whenproblems occur.

adnge f ss Bckp

Overall, SaaS was widely embraced by the round-table par-ticipants. “We’re using it more and more,” said a managerrom a nancial services company. The basic premise with SaaS backup is that, whenever auser (in their oce or in the eld) connects to the Inter-net, data is backed up securely to a provider’s servers. Inact, SaaS backup solutions are accessible anywhere overthe Internet.SaaS backup solutions are requently easier to use thanother, in-house backup solutions. They also automate thebackup process, helping to ensure compliance with dataretention laws while protecting critical inormation.In this regard, several participants noted that SaaS back-up would help with governance. “It could help with [datamanagement] o both structured and unstructured data,”said one manager.Mobile users are better protected using a SaaS backup ap-proach, as their data can be backed up anytime they con-nect to the Internet. This is a huge advantage over waitingor the user to come into the oce and synch their data tonetwork drives manually. In act, since most mobile work-ers routinely use WiFi hotspots and their home broadbandconnections to check Webmail (while not necessarily con-necting to the corporate network), SaaS backup provides amuch higher likelihood that critical les will be protected.Another benet o SaaS backup is that les, messages, andother data can be ound and restored aster and easierthan when using tapes. This removes one o the biggestproblems with traditional backup: Time to restoration. “Themain issue is how quickly you can get to of-site storageor retrieval,” said one manager. He noted that with tapes,companies must also actor in the time required to searchmultiple tapes or a particular item.SaaS backup addresses both o these issues. Essentially,SaaS backup solutions deliver the comparable beneitso using a virtual tape library (namely, a solution thatuses more reliable disk-based storage), but with theadded protection o having the data stored on secure,o-site servers.

SaaS backup solutions deliver the comparablebenets o using a virtual tape library, but withthe added protection o having the data storedon secure, of-site servers.

saas at a GLaNCE:H i cpre  her erice

What’s in a name? Where does SaaS it inwhen compared to outsourcing and man-aged services?Naturally, there is some overlap betweenthe three.Many tasks, such as desktop and server man-agement, sotware installation, e-mail, andspam iltering, can be outsourced to a thirdparty to oload the chores rom an internalIT sta.In many cases, these services are ofered asmanaged oferings, which include service guar-antees, customer service, and other options.In contrast, SaaS is a way to ofer an applica-tion--such as e-mail or backup--as a service.SaaS relies on a Web architecture rather thanthe traditional client/server model used to de-liver many applications.A SaaS efort might be home-grown and run onan organization’s own Web servers, or it couldbe ofered by a provider as a service (managedor otherwise).

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