Blog

Enterprise Laptop Desktop Backup – Don’t Impact the End User!

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 explored backup frequency options that you should look at for your enterprise laptop and desktop population.  In this post, I'll share my thoughts on a crucial issue that plagues almost every solution: aggressive backup agents that adversely impact the user.

One of the biggest concerns about PC backup solutions has been the impact to end users.  Stories abound about what is considered to be the only widely deployed solution, which is notorious for taking over your PC.  Imagine that you've just started your laptop or desktop - you're desperate to check your email, but the backup agent has different ideas - it must do a backup! Productivity can go take a hike!  End users often end up killing or disabling such agents on their PC - defeating the purpose of the backup. 
Some PC backup solutions offer CPU throttling as a means to prove that they are not disruptive to the end user during the backup.  The premise is that they are monitoring the CPU usage and won't start the backup if the CPU usage is above a certain percentage.  However, unlike for servers, CPU usage is not an effective indicator of whether the PC is in use.  Think about it, when you are editing a document or checking your email - what percent of your PC is in use? May be it is 5-10%.  At that usage, these backup agents have a free pass to start pounding your disk for backup - exactly when you don't want them to.  For desktop laptop backup, the CPU throttling rule is pretty much useless in preventing end user disruption.
Look for a solution that can detect that the PC is in use by the end user and only does backup when the desktop or laptop is not in use.  Make sure that the rule applies to not only start of backup, but to the entire backup processing.  For example, the backup application should not only NOT start up if the PC is in use, but also it should immediately pause if the user starts using the PC. 

There are two sides to enterprise desktop and laptop backup: IT and end users, both are important and have needs that need to be met.  Don't forget the end user: as not impacting the end users is key - otherwise they will try to find a way to work around the solution you deploy - defeating the whole purpose of the backup.