Data Governance 'On the Edge' Requires Automatic Solutions

Businesses know that they must protect and back up corporate data, but when that information lives everywhere from company-issued laptops to employee smartphones, the task is easier said than done. As workers increasingly do their jobs from various devices on the go, data backup becomes even more complicated. Today only about one-fifth of corporate data is managed in traditional databases, according to a recent eWeek report. The remaining 80 percent lives in mobile devices.

While the mobility of corporate data vastly improves employee productivity, it also increases the need for companies to secure the data that leaves the building with workers. New generation data protection requires automatic endpoint data solutions—ways to protect the corporate network when accessed via remote devices such as laptops or other wireless and mobile devices—to support mobile workers, the report says.

EWeek highlights some key research findings to help IT managers understand what they might be overlooking with regard to data governance “on the edge.” 

• Nearly two-thirds of respondents said that their organization experienced data loss at the endpoint for reasons such as device loss or theft.
• Twenty-seven percent of respondents reported that permanent data loss resulted in a significant loss of time and resources spent trying to recover the information.
• More than two-thirds of employees perform work tasks from home.
• Whether or not they’re allowed, 41 percent of employees use USB flash drives or CDs/DVDs for backup, and 28 percent use personal external hard drives.

When an end-user device is hacked, stolen or lost, not only can an employee lose valuable resources and time spent working, but the incident puts a drain on the IT department that has to restore the data. “Enterprises must adopt ways to back up end-user data without additionally burdening IT staff,” the report says. That means companies shouldn’t leave it up to employees to back up files on personal flash drives. 

Instead they need automatic endpoint data backup solutions that manage and protect data silently and continuously in the background, the report says. With automatic endpoint data backup, both employees and their IT colleagues can work uninterrupted—wherever and whenever they choose.

For more research findings about endpoint data protection, check out eWeek’s report, “10 Facts IT Managers Need to Know About New-Gen Data Protection.”

Image via Can Stock