How much backup for user desktops?

[James Murray]

This is an IT policy question, but I know for many of us, IT and CAD management overlap a lot.

How much desktop backup do you guarantee for your users?

I assume all the project data is centrally located and backed up. But you have to back up users as well; email at least, and most reasonable people would expect more than that.

It becomes dicier when we start talking about 50GB iTunes libraries, 30,000 photos, etc, etc, multiply by however many people.

So it's not a technical question, it's more of a benefits issue, since the office is buying them personal storage. How much junk are people are allowed to have before they have to back it up themselves?

Thanks for your thoughts,

[TomWaltz]

We do no allow such content on the server. It is allowed on local machines with the understanding that the company is not responsible for it and the machines may be replaced/reformatted at any time.

To be specific, any MP3 files are purged by the overnight maintenance scripts.

[Anonymous]

We observe the same policy here. They are allowed to have music, etc. but whatever personal data is on users hard drives is not the companies responsibility.

[David Larrew]

We have a similar policy. Though it is getting stricter as users are bringing in and syncing their iPods and other devices.

Basically, store files locally "at your own risk" with no guaranty of the files being on your local drive tomorrow.

All project-specific files are stored and backed-up on the servers.

[Rakela Raul]

Basically, store files locally "at your own risk" with no guaranty of the files being on your local drive tomorrow.

All project-specific files are stored and backed-up on the servers.

ditto !!

[Anonymous]

We don't do any "desktop" backup.

There should be no project related files on the local hard drives. In an office of 85 workstations, it's just unreasonable to back them up.

[Anonymous]

Skaman40 wrote:
We don't do any "desktop" backup.

There should be no project related files on the local hard drives. In an office of 85 workstations, it's just unreasonable to back them up.

This has also been standard in most if not all offices I have known.