Disaster Recovery For Mobile Devices

According to the Yankee Group’s “2006 Transatlantic Wireless Business Survey,” “more than 40% of today’s workforce is considered mobile. In fact, workforce mobility has increased by nearly 10% during the past four years.” This statistic paints a new picture for the face of disaster recovery as more of today’s workforce trades in the security of the corporate network for mobility.

A number of vendors are rising to the challenge of mobile device disaster recovery by offering software to back up laptops, PDAs, and smartphones to protect corporate data. This article explores some of the challenges, tools, and best practices for mobile device disaster recovery.

There Will Be Challenges

Paul Marsala, founder of Peer Software (www.peersoftware.com), makers of PeerSync Server and PeerSync Workstation, sees the following challenges for mobile device disaster recovery: “Data is always the problem for any type of loss/recovery scenario: Has the data been backed up in a timely manner? Has the data been secured on the portable device so that if it is lost or stolen the contained information is protected from unwanted access? Additionally, has the environment been included in the backup scheme? [For example, does it include system settings and the like?]”

He further notes, “These are all issues enterprises must face, but the most critical is probably ownership of the process. Most IT managers will put laptop users on notice that if they want their data protected, it is up to the end user to ensure the data is stored/backed up/synchronized with protected infrastructure storage devices made available to the mobile user. From my experience, this is the biggest problem—which is more a cultural/communications problem than a purely technology problem.”

David Heit, senior product manager for Research In Motion (www.rim.com) reminds us about another element of mobile device disaster recovery. “One critical component of business continuity is maintaining communications, something especially challenging if the disruption affects components of the IT or communications infrastructure itself, affecting the means by which employees can communicate with each other,” he says.

RIM sees two types of disaster recovery applications for its mobile devices. The first application is used for BlackBerry disaster recovery (of the server and devices). The second application is use of the BlackBerry itself as a communications tool in a disaster recovery/business continuity effort. (RIM publishes the “BlackBerry Solutions Guide” online at www.blackberry.com/go/solutionsguide.)

Mobile Device Disaster Recovery Best Practices

Marsala advises the following best practices for mobile device disaster recovery: “Establish policies that require mobile users to connect to their primary office on a regular schedule to back up changing data and to ensure proper antivirus software and OS updates/patches are in place. Procure mobile devices that offer biometric scanners for secure access. Make someone in IT responsible for the content/protection of the mobile devices employed by the enterprise.”

User education is an integral element to instituting a mobile device disaster recovery plan. You need to instruct your users to synchronize their mobile devices with a disaster recovery solution or their PC as part of their day-to-day workflows. End users backing up their data in a timely manner can be a hurdle in many organizations, but you need to determine the right mix of corporate policies and user education to forestall a catastrophic failure of a mobile worker’s laptop or PDA while she is on the road and away from your IT group.

Your existing disaster recovery plan needs to cover disaster recovery for each mobile device you officially support as an IT group, including laptops, PDAs, and smartphones.

Your disaster recovery plan needs to drill down and include backup strategies for each particular device your company officially supports. For example, your backup and recovery strategy for your PalmOS-based smartphones used by your sales team could depend on commercial backup software such as Resco Backup (www.resco.net), while Windows Mobile 5.0 PDAs in use by the executive team may rely on backup software such as Spb Backup (www.spbsoftwarehouse.com).

The trick is for the IT staff member designated to manage mobile device/content protection to research suitable backup software for the mobile device platform, develop backup policies and procedures, and institute/monitor the procedures in the user community.

Spare Your Mobile Users From Disaster

Just as you institute a disaster recovery plan for your SME’s enterprise infrastructure, you need to branch off and create a disaster recovery plan and institute best practices for your mobile users and their devices. In today’s mobile world, business continuity and disaster recovery must extend outside the firewalls of your enterprise.

by Will Kelly