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How Road Warriors Keep Data Safe at Any Speed
March 20, 2008
Keeping your road warriors working efficiently while ensuring that their data protection plan is solid has become a top organizational priority. While many are using MS Remote Desktop and Microsoft Offline Files for mobile file synchronization, individual and combined drawbacks make them unreliable at best. What can organizations do to provide solutions for their time-constrained mobile sales forces?
By Paul Marsala
Today's typical organization is made up of a broad, often geographically diverse group of people—from senior management to administrative support staff at HQ to a mobile sales force distributed across the country. Indeed, the emergence of this broader mobile "culture" has made the establishment of a reliable and secure data transmission framework a top organizational imperative.
Consider this: According to the 451 Group, industry trends point to the rapid evolution of the mobile laptop as a viable—and permanent—desktop replacement. "Mobile-enabled laptops are getting cheaper; wireless networks are becoming faster and more ubiquitous, and the suite of software needed to securely connect the mobile worker with the office, on the go, is rapidly solidifying."
As the laptop begins to supplant the desktop, attendant security and data availability issues are only going to be compounded. So, how can road warriors keep their data transparently, consistently and reliably safe and synchronized?
Technology is Not (Yet) Enough
A growing number of mobile workers are using Microsoft's Remote Desktop and Offline Files features in Windows XP to facilitate access to data, applications and resources on their office computer. Remote Desktop lets you remotely control a computer from another office, from home or while traveling, while Offline Files allows you to synchronize files between a shared network location and an individual computer.
However, both come with significant drawbacks: Remote Desktop is typically not a viable option because it requires a constant Internet connection. This naturally leads to a solution that requires local file access, wherein data reside on their laptop's hard drive—which is presumably where MS Offline Files comes in. But anyone who's used Offline Files will attest that it's cumbersome and inflexible. First, users must manually identify which files they want to use offline. Second, the process is both slow and error prone, resulting in unusable files. Moreover, using Offline Files can sap up to 100% of your processing utilization as it examines all of the offline files.
With all organizations these days making data availability a bottom line business imperative, the existing tools aren't cutting it. And having a backup/synchronization scheme in place that is tailored to the way laptops are being used—both as mobile devices and as replacements for desktops—is critical to assist salespeople in their responsibilities.
Today's mobile sales force faces the following fundamental business and communications challenges:
• How does a typical mobile user handle different connectivity states (i.e., being "on net" when in the corporate office, "off net but connected remotely" when at home or in a hotel, and "temporarily disconnected" when working while on a flight)?
• How do you centrally configure, deploy and monitor a back-up solution in real time for a system that may be constantly mobile?
• How do you ensure back-ups occur to the central corporate storage infrastructure without creating complex processes that require end-user actions?
• How do you ensure efficient and secure data transfer from anywhere in the world?
Soluble Solutions
A truly efficient, flexible data synchronization framework must enable centralized configuration, deployment and monitoring of continuous data protection for both laptops and desktops. While the market teems with tools and methodologies purporting to address this need, a comprehensive review of requirements should be made to ensure that the solution you choose meets all the complex challenges presented from a distributed workforce. Additionally, a mobile sales synchronization and data protection solution must include: a centralized monitoring console, backup auto-start with intelligent "connection" check; real-time event detection and back-up when connected; allowing for multiple source or target path configurations; encryption for data transfer; open and locked file processing; inadvertent file deletion protection; revision control; and administrative and e-mail reporting.
In today's fluid sales environment, teams that are more flexible and agile are better able to respond to opportunities and adjust to changing circumstances. In sum, they are better positioned to compete and lock in revenue. There are many elements that result in a sale, but consistent success isn't achievable without a solid data protection and communications plan.
Paul Marsala founded Peer Software in 1993, a global provider of enterprise-grade file and network management solutions for hundreds of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. Paul is a widely respected authority on data protection and digital asset management. He can be reached at paulm@peersoftware.com.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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