Mozy is making some big changes to the foundation on which the Mozy service is built, putting users at the heart of the backup equation and simplifying how backup administrators map data to people.
Not that long ago, we had dedicated devices to carry out dedicated tasks. Those devices were bought and managed by an IT department. Today, with BYOD and people moving from screen to screen as they work, things are very different – and that presents a number of backup challenges.
To tackle them head-on requires a change in mentality. Instead of simply aiming to back up data belonging to machines, businesses also need to begin thinking about how to back up data belonging to people.
Mozy is making that transition easier by re-architecting the tools that underpin its cloud backup and access service.
Initially, users will notice two changes as a result of the new functionality:
Keyless activation
Traditionally, Mozy has required the backup for every device to be activated with a unique key. This key becomes the identifier for the data and enables it to be matched back to the device when a restore is needed. Issuing these keys can be time-consuming for backup administrators, especially when embracing online backup for the first time and deploying it across a large enterprise. It also ties backup to devices and not people.
Very soon, Mozy administrators will be able to simply link accounts to user profiles and employees can activate backup on their devices easily by using their email addresses. Accounts can even be provisioned, updated and deactivated through Active Directory or other LDAP solutions.
Pooled storage
With device-centric backup methods, administrators would allocate a quota of backup space to each machine. This can leave unnecessary pockets of unused storage that are tied to devices.
Now, Mozy administrators will be able to allocate their storage quotas to individuals, teams or groups. This allows them to more efficiently manage their backup storage across their organization and limit the burden of monitoring and managing a ‘buffer’ for every device that’s being backed up.
With these changes, we’ve laid the foundation for further improvements to the Mozy backup and access experience and look forward to sharing more exciting news on this in the coming year.
Check out the Brainshark presentation below for more info!