ABSplus for when the worst happens

Your PC does not work …. Now what do you do?

By B.Blanchard, CMS Products Inc

Introduction:

New working practices have led to more employees working from home and more mobile workers carrying laptop PCs. In both cases the PC has become a vital tool in the business process and the individual is working without the benefit of IT co-workers on hand to provide a quick response when problems occur.

One of the key methods of business communication is now the e-mail which means the PC becomes the main link to the rest of the organisation as well as to suppliers and customers. The PC is used for many business functions from Diary to typewriter and calculator, but what if your PC fails to work properly – what do you do? There is no time to send it off to the IT group for repair, you need it now. Self-help may be the only solution feasible in the time available.

The Problems:

Your PC problem could be one of several types.

PCs today have become much more reliable and laptops have become small enough to be treated like appliances. We forget the technology inside is both advanced and vulnerable, being susceptible to shock and other environmental issues. This can lead to failure of the system’s hard drive – one of the more common hardware failures.

Today there are thousands of programs available for the PC and any one PC will have a combination of these programs according to personal preference and the requirements of the owners work. This can sometimes lead to problems particularly after a software change or update.

Viruses and mal-ware are threatening our PCs everyday and even a protected PC could succumb to the threat, leaving the PC in a dangerous state. Not only is its operation affected but it could be difficult to eradicate the problem and could lead to further infection. A good, clean replacement system is required.

A Solution is needed

What is needed is a solution that you can use when any of the above occurs. It must be quick and easy to implement in order to get your PC running properly again.

There are many Backup solutions on the market today but all they really do is automate the copying of files from the data area to another disk. They may not even access all areas of the disk to allow files like e-mail to be copied. The backup created would be of no use in recovering the use of your PC.

Some Backup solutions take the approach of making an image backup of the system disk. These usually blindly copy information from each part of the system disk to an image backup device like a CD/DVD or tape where the information is not stored in its native format and therefore has to be completely restored back to the system disk before it can be used. This takes a long time and furthermore, each backup requires all the information to be copied again. It is not possible to copy only the changes. When processes take a long time they are often forgotten or ignored by users.

Industry analysts would agree that the fastest way to recover a PC is with a replacement system drive. When trouble occurs, recovery is achieved by starting the PC from the replacement system disk. An example of this kinid of solution is the CMS Products’ ABSplus where the BounceBack Ultimate software creates the replacement system drive and keeps it up-to-date by just backing-up the changes. When recovery is required you restart the PC from the ABSplus disk on the USB port.

The required solution is one which quickly recovers use of the Laptop or desktop and must be quick & easy to use, since there may be no IT assistance readily available to the user. It should have the ability to password protect access to the information and offer the user the chance to encrypt sensitive data. Further solutions that protect data during times when it is exposed and vulnerable, such as during travel should also be available and capable of being integrated.

Furthermore, this solution should have the ability to encrypt those files deemed to be sensitive by the user or company. When the PC is recovered, these encrypted files should be automatically restored to their decrypted state on the hard drive after the user enters the correct password.

Conclusions:

Companies who want to reduce their IT costs and keep their users productive deploy solutions which generate replacement system drives. Return-on-investment can be measured in weeks rather than years and is easily calculated from known business parameters.

In the case of a Laptop PC, the replacement solution is in the form of a small palm-sized hard drive which can be carried with the laptop. For a desktop PC, the solution could sit inside the PC itself, ready to be accessed when trouble strikes.

Self-help IT products mean less time and distraction for the IT department and the users can help themselves when they need to, without delay.

CMS Products Inc. is exhibiting at Storage Expo 2008 the UK’s definitive event for data storage, information and content management. Now in its 8th year, the show features a comprehensive FREE education programme and over 100 exhibitors at the National Hall, Olympia, London from 15 - 16 October 2008 www.storage-expo.com

Source: StoragePR
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