| SUB OFFICE DATA
PROTECTION
Title : Sub office data protection
Audience : Small Medium Enterprise non technical decision
maker level with concerns about sub office data protection.
User I.T. Knowledge 2/10
Source : http://www.backupanytime.com/whitepaper.htm
Posted : Jan 07
Reviewed July 07
Updated n/a
Copyright : backupanytime original content.
Redistribution as is : No permission required (with
credits)
Modification : With written permission from backupanytime.
The work involved in the management of data and data
protection at head office / main office level should
be relative to business size and budget. Regardless
therefore of business type, if the requisite procedures
are put in place, the process of managing this data
should be relatively straight forward when compared
to the multiple site scenario.
The same simplicity can not often be assumed for sub
office data protection. To examine this we must at least
loosely define "sub office data". For the
purposes of this document, sub office data is data created,
manipulated, sent received or used for company purposes
from a location outside the company. This is actually
quite broad. It includes temporary and permanent external
locations including employee place of residence, sub
offices of all types ranging from prefabricated site
offices through retail branch to external national head
quarters. It can and often does include supplier offices.
This area is often overlooked. An example would be an
external marketing company communicating with a contact
list provided by you or editing a database on a per
contact basis on your behalf.
Before putting a sub office wide backup system in place
you need to establish the following.
Sub office data ownership
It is possible that not all data at sub office level
is yours. This is particularly likely at supplier level.
You must establish your rights and responsibilities
with regard to all data you intend backing up from sub
office level.
Sub office system and infrastructure
ownership
In the example of an employee working from home, you
may claim data owner ship of some but not necessarily
all data on the system and you may or may not own the
actual equipment itself.
Permission from and notification
of interested parties.
Regardless of data and system ownership there may be
legal and are ethical issues pertaining to implementation
of and any modification of or enhancement to a system
at someone else's home or premises. Just because you
have a network connection and agentless backup is capable
of backing up the data without installation and just
because you have an ownership of the data does not mean
you can go ahead. Again, communication and retrievable
acceptance should be considered essential.
Duplicate data base avoidance.
In the interests of data protection compliance, inter
company information sharing and economy you will want
all interested parties where possible to be using the
information appropriate to them from the same set of
data files. Failure to employ company wide singular
set such as a C.R.M. system risks serious communication
issues and data risk. It also greatly increases the
overhead of managing the data.
Sub office strict access management.
When an employees leaves head office it is the norm
for passwords and access for that person being amended
to provide same for a new employee or suspended if the
position is not being filled immediately. The same should
but often does not apply to sub office. Sub office locations,
even in blue chip companies are often the centre of
much front line activity and sporadic backroom management.
This is unfortunately conducive to required access changes
being missed. The consequences could at any stage in
the future be devastating. Head office management, sub
office management and H.R. should have clearly identified
roles and communication paths for this purpose.
Sub office data management
While sub office data backup should not be a complicated
matter, sub office data protection management is generally
far more involving than the head office equivalent.
This is because of data, staff and infrastructure out
of reach and evolution issues. This requires an active
management role in data selection, staff data procedures,
inter project communications and the process of dealing
with data at temporary site and project closures.
Sub office data protection local
regulations
If you have sub offices in a region separate to head
office, it is essential that you establish your responsibilities
in that region. It is all too easy for an established
off site team frequently on the move with new projects
and with through, tried and tested procedures to enter
a site in a new region using head office region procedures.
Just because the intentions are good and the system
works, does not mean you are in compliance.
Sub office data protection can be a complicated issue
and is essential. Among the factors determining what
is involved are the number, permanence, size and location
of your sub office units. Online backup is an essential
tool in protecting any sub office from data loss. No
matter which backup system you use, compliance management
is required to protect your business and clients.
If you found this document helpful you may like to
visit www.backupanytime.com/whitepaper.htm
or our website proper at www.backupanytime.com
If you are a system administrator and would like technical
details please register your interest on our contact
page requesting membership of our private white
paper area for I.T. Professionals.
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