Enterprise PC Backup Software – Backup Requirements

This post is part of a Series on planning for Enterprise desktop laptop backup in your organization.  Whether you are considering software or online options for your enterprise PC backup solution there are several items that need to be considered and this series takes a look at those items.  In my last post, I laid out a high level approach listing a comprehensive set of items that should be taken into account while planning for a successful enterprise desktop laptop backup - whether software or service.  This post takes a deeper look at specifically what factors to consider on the backup side of things.

Purely from the backup requirements perspective, the following factors need to be taken into consideration:

1. Desktop or Laptop Backup specification capabilities: This post discusses the need for your desktop laptop backup software to provide you adequate control and flexibility for specifying:
   • What data on the PC gets backed up? 
   • How do you separate corporate data from personal data on the PC? 
   • Who configures the PC backup specification: IT or the end user?
   • Does the end user have any say in what data on their PC should be part of the backup specification?
2. PC Backup Scheduling: Can a scheduled backup option work for your enterprise laptop and desktop population?  Click here to read the post that looks at why scheduled backup is most likely a bad idea for a laptop or desktop.
3. PC Backup Frequency: What backup frequency options should you look for in your laptop desktop backup solution?  Is CDP a good option or overkill?  Is near-continuous backup the perfect balance of RPO and cost?  Click here to read the post that describes the various options and their pros and cons.
4. Impact to end user: You are probably concerned about installing an agent on your end users' PCs which could impact their productivity and result in IT calls.  This post describes the problems with several PC backup agents and also provides information on what to look for to minimize the end user impact.
5. Who initiates the backup: the server or the PC: Unlike for server backups, the backup server initiating the backup is not really an option for desktops and laptops.  This post describes why and what to look for in an ideal solution. 
6. Restartability: An end user PC is perhaps the most volatile piece of IT infrastructure in the company: it can shutdown, lose connectivity or have environmental problems at any time.  This post describes what restartability requirements to look for in your desktop laptop backup solution.
7. Versioning: This post describes the versioning capabilities to look for in your desktop laptop backup solution. 
8. Forever incremental: Because there are so many of them, backup for laptops and desktops, forever incremental backups are a must.  This post will describe what capabilities to look for  to ensure an efficient and intuitive backup and recovery experience.

What do you think?  Do these make sense? Would you like to add/remove anything?