Laptop and smartphone backups

[PavanVyas]

What are the most common policies that you see for the backup of data on laptops and smartphones? Do your customers have standard policies for the backup of data from such end point devices? Or, does it remain an activity where the responsibility is still in the hands of the end user?

Given that more and more employees are accessing their work related information from such end point devices, how do you see backup policies emerging for this space? Are you seeing any early trends? Would love to hear your thoughts..

[kevlamb]

So far the company I work for do not cover either laptops or Smart Phones in their backup scope, this is a dangerous situation as we have a lot of employees that use both mediums for work related tasks and if that data is lost then it is lost for good, this has happened recently where someone lost almost a years worth of work.....

[TheBackupKnight]

I wonder why people do not understand the simple fact that all data is created equal - it does not matter which device it is created on. It is corporate information and needs to be backed up.

I always recommend that all official devices are backed up.

However,some people create corporate data on their personal devices. The challenge is that people in corner offices create data on their personal iPads and don't want to install software on their precious devices to back this data up. That's where the problems arise.

[TheBackupKnight]

@kevlamb Post the disaster, has there been a change in the approach towards backing up these devices?

[kevlamb]

Not at this moment in time

[Lasseoe]

On iOS you cannot backup anything besides contacts, calendar, photos and videos, so even if you did install a super-duper backup-app, it would not be able to backup any data created within applications. You're "stuck" with backing up to iTunes whenever you sync, or use iCloud.

[ZaidRasid]

@kevlamb What do you think are some of the barriers that prevent your company from backing up their laptops or smart phones? Is it awareness or education? I mean why are they not doing this?

[PavanVyas]

@Lasseoe True! Apple does not expose any other capabilities on their APIs - which is why backup solutions cannot offer more in terms of functionality. I guess they are doing this because they want people to backup to their iCloud or iTunes - even though these applications offer far too little in terms of functionality.Different story with Android though where you can back up so much more using backup software.