 When Mobile Systems FailThe deployment of mobile technologies has transformed today’s small businesses, fueling tremendous productivity gains. Even so, many of these organizations are at a loss when their mobile systems fail. This article looks at how to speed the recovery of the mobile client.
For most of today’s small businesses, “going mobile” is a given. According to research from International Data Corp., two-thirds of the U.S. workforce will be considered mobile by the end of this year. But while the deployment of mobile technologies has transformed many small businesses, fueling tremendous productivity gains, many of these organizations find themselves at a loss when their mobile systems fail. This article looks at what small businesses can do to speed the recovery of their mobile Windows systems. Two ways to recover That doesn’t cut it for today’s small businesses, which can’t afford that kind of downtime. As the Data Mobility Group, a storage industry research firm, put it in a September 2005 Research Note, “There are two ways to recover servers, workstations, and laptops-the hard way and the easy way. The hard way requires you to piece together the operating system and applications. The easy way allows you to recover . . . to any previous state with one command.” When mobile systems fail, you need a solution that eliminates the need to reinstall, reconfigure, and repatch operating systems and applications (not to mention system settings). Moreover, you need a solution capable of a full restoration in just minutes. The logic is simple: Anything that disrupts the safety and accessibility of information creates downtime, and downtime costs money. When disruptions do occur, you need to restore to the “last good” state, as rapidly as possible, without risk of repeating the same failure. Increasingly, this is being accomplished through the use of so-called snapshot technology, which captures and encapsulates all files and configurations in one, easy-to-manage recovery point (also known as a “system image”). This also enables you to create full and incremental recovery points throughout the day – without interrupting user productivity or application usage. Certain events can trigger an automatic recovery point, such as when a user logs on or logs off, or when stored information exceeds a certain amount of space. Restoring to any device That’s why you must be able to recover any Windows laptop to any other Windows laptop, independent of hardware configuration. Users should be able to recover from an HP laptop to a Dell laptop, for example, including restoring to machines with entirely different motherboards, mass storage devices, network interface cards, video adapters, etc. Eliminating the need to purchase identical hardware means you can restore more quickly and effortlessly. IDC has characterized today’s computing environment as “a large, distributed, and complex infrastructure of servers, desktops, and laptops [that are] constantly changing to stay current with the needs of fiercely competitive businesses.” In addition, you may have employees who are frequently on the road. A system failure could cost an organization thousands of dollars in productivity losses. Clearly, manual recovery is no longer a viable option. A superior recovery solution eliminates the need for in-person visits to perform a full recovery. Moreover, when a system fails, you want to eliminate the need to reinstall, reconfigure, and repatch operating systems and applications. One-step restoration greatly improves recovery speeds and enhances system availability. Conclusion From symantec |
Carl Mazzanti is Co-Founder and President of eMazzanti Technologies, Microsoft’s four time Partner of the Year and one of the premier IT consulting services for businesses throughout the New York metropolitan area and internationally. Carl and his company manage over 400 active accounts ranging from professional services firms to high-end global retailers.
eMazzanti is all about delivering powerful, efficient outsourced IT services, such as computer network management and troubleshooting, managed print, PCI DSS compliance, green computing, mobile workforce technology, information security, cloud computing, and business continuity and disaster recovery.
Carl Mazzanti is also a frequent business conference speaker and technology talk show guest and contributor at Microsoft-focused events, including frequent prominent roles at the Microsoft Inspire (Worldwide Partner Conference / WPC).
Carl, a serial Entrepreneur, gives back to the community through Entrepreneur teaching engagements at Georgetown University, the company’s ocean wildlife conservation effort, the Blue Project, and Tree Mazzanti.
