Yosemite FileKeeper white paper
Protecting Mobile Users
Protecting information created by mobile users is a growing challenge for IT support organizations. As the Butler
Group notes in its recent report titled, Managing the Storage of Information, "The workforce is becoming
increasingly mobile and in many instances the data can be found outside the organization's direct control."
Yosemite FileKeeper's user-centric data protection technology provides IT organizations with a centrally-managed,
policy-based, continuous data protection solution to protect every critical data file created, modified and stored on
Windows laptops independent of network connection. User-initiated file recoveries back to any previous version that
are quick and easy using intuitive right-click menus that work with the context of the application or environment help
to reduce IT Help Desk data protection and recovery burden.
How it Works
Yosemite FileKeeper installs a lightweight, anti-virus like agent on your Windows-based desktops and laptops.
FileKeeper's agent protects every file a user creates, modifies and saves on their Windows laptop according to data
protection policies defined on a central FileKeeper Enterprise server.
FileKeeper copies the recent and previous versions of a user's files to a local repository on the system's local hard
drive as well as to one or more FileKeeper backup locations (typically created on your organization's file servers)
when a user re-connects to their organization's network. The action is completely transparent to the user and ensures
data is protected consistently and reliably.
FileKeeper's centrally managed, distributed design enables mobile users to recover their files regardless of whether
they are in the office or on the road or whether they are connected to or disconnected from the corporate network,
while providing users with the ability to recover the most recent versions of all of their files in the event of a
disaster such as a lost, damaged or stolen laptop.
Five Essential Data Protection Features for Mobile Users
| 1 |
Offline Recovery: Users can recover the current and previous versions of deleted files while on
the road or in the office regardless of network connectivity
|
Users can recover time critical, business files while they are on the road without involving IT support, avoiding
lost revenue, lost productivity and unnecessary calls to the IT support.
|
| 2 |
Access to Previous File Versions: Users can recover the previous versions of their files
|
Avoids the time and costs associated with recreating files lost to accidental overwrites and deletions. Enables users
to recover the previous versions of files corrupted by a virus attack.
|
| 3 |
Continuous Backup: FileKeeper's data protection is event-based and backs up every file a user
creates or modifies at the instance the file is saved to disk. FileKeeper does not require that a laptop be turned on
and connected to a network to conform to a time-based (e.g. "scheduled backup window") model
|
FileKeeper ensures that the most recent versions of a user's files are always available, avoiding the time and cost
associated with recreating files lost between scheduled (or missed) backup windows.
|
| 4 |
Automatic Operation: FileKeeper automatically detects when a user reconnects to their
organization's network and automatically copies files created and modified while the user was disconnected from the
network file server.
|
Assures user data is protecting by copying it to Core servers for backup to tape for disaster protection using
Core-based solutions such as Yosemite Backup.
|
| 5 |
Centralized Administration:
FileKeeper agents can be deployed, updated and configured from a central console. Administrators can use FileKeeper's
web-based console to centrally define data protection policies for all of mobile users in your organization.
Administrators can also use the console to centrally monitor the health of FileKeeper agents.
|
Lowers the IT support costs associated with managing data protection for an organization's mobile users.
|
Yosemite FileKeeper vs. Microsoft Offline Files
Offline Files enable users (or network administrators) to create synchronized, local copies of files stored on a
network server. Users can work on the synchronized copy of their files stored on the local hard drive of their laptop
while they are disconnected from their network. When they reconnect to their network, changes made to the offline
versions of their files are synchronized with copies of the files stored on the network server.
While Microsoft's Offline Files feature is a good productivity tool for laptop users, it is not sufficient for data
protection. Specially, Microsoft Offline Files:
-
Was not designed to protect files created and stored on the local hard drive of a laptop computer while that computer
is disconnected from the network
-
Does not retain the previous versions of files and thus does not offer data protection against accidentally
overwritten files or files corrupted by virus attacks
-
Fails to protect against accidentally deleted files
-
Does not provide mobile users with continuous data protection
-
Requires that users embrace a less-intuitive work model by storing all of their important files in "synchronized"
folders on their organization's network file servers.