SonicWALL White Paper Sample

Today data is more distributed across multiple physical sites and device types. The rise in mobile device usage alone poses its own unique issues for backup and recovery. Offsite unmanaged and personal computing devices can be especially vulnerable to data loss from viruses and other malware. IT is less able to enforce verbal or written backup policies with remote or mobile end-users. Laptops and other mobile devices are inherently subject to physical damage from being dropped onto hard surfaces. Increasingly, data on laptops and other mobile devices is lost due to theft.

Traditional backup policies are notoriously unreliable. Most SMBs rely on written or verbal polices that require users to manually save important documents to the network. End-users forget to save files, unintentionally delete important data, and accidentally damage their computer systems. SMBs are often left uncertain whether a viable backup has even occurred. Connections to servers and other computing devices may be compromised before or during backup for various reasons, without the administrator being aware. Since administrators often establish backups in the middle of the night to avoid impacting network performance, the backup will miss any laptops that were brought home or no longer connected.

Data recovery from conventional tape systems has been unreliable. According to one published survey, 77% of respondents found failed tapes while testing their backup system. Even though tape is widely recognized as unreliable, as many as three out of four SMBs still back up information using tape solutions. While hardware failure is the most common cause of lost data, human error accounts for a significant amount of data loss. Conventional tape backups require manual intervention, and are prone to inadvertent administrative errors.