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UD Pocket Saves the Day After Malware Cripple’s Hospital’s Mission-Critical PCs

Topics: IGEL, virtualization, cybersecurity, healthcare, end-user computing

IGEL Platinum Partner A2U had endpoints within the healthcare organization’s finance department up and running within a few hours following the potentially crippling cyberattack, thanks to the innovative micro thin client.

A2U, an IGEL Platinum Partner, recently experienced a situation where one of its large, regional healthcare clients was hit by a cyberattack. “Essentially, malware entered the client’s network via a computer and began replicating like wildfire,” recalls A2U Vice President of Sales, Robert Hammond.

During the cyberattack, a few hundred of the hospital’s PCs were affected. Among those were 30 endpoints within the finance department that the healthcare organization deemed mission critical due to the volume of daily transactions between patients, insurance companies, and state and county agencies for services rendered. “It was very painful from a business standpoint not to be able to conduct billing and receiving, not to mention payroll,” said Hammond.

Prior to this particular incident, A2U had received demo units of the IGEL UD Pocket, a revolutionary micro thin client that can transform x86-compatible PCs and laptops into IGEL OS-powered desktops.

“We had been having a discussion with this client about re-imaging their PCs, but their primary concern was maintaining the integrity of the data that was already on the hardware,” continued Hammond. “HIPAA and other regulations meant that they needed to preserve the data and keep it secure, and we thought that the IGEL UD Pocket could be the answer to this problem. We didn’t see why it wouldn’t work, but we needed to test our theory.”

When the malware attack hit, that opportunity came sooner, rather than later for A2U. “We plugged the UD Pocket into one of the affected machines and were able to bypass the local hard drive, installing the Linux-based IGEL OS on the system without impacting existing data,” said Hammond. “It was like we had created a ‘Linux bubble’ that protected the machine, yet created an environment that allowed end users to quickly return to productivity.”

Working with the hospital’s IT team, it only took a few hours for A2U to get the entire finance department back online. “They were able to start billing the very next day,” added Hammond.

Digital Workspace Disasters and How to Beat Them

Topics: Liquidware, Business Continuity, Freform Dynamics, Disaster Recovery

This paper looks at risk management as it relates to the Windows desktops that are permanently connected to a campus, head office or branch network. In particular, we will look at how ‘digital workspace’ solutions designed to streamline desktop delivery and provide greater user flexibility can also be leveraged to enable a more effective and efficient approach to desktop disaster recovery (DR).

Desktop DR - the recovery of individual desktop systems from a disaster or system failure - has long been a challenge. Part of the problem is that there are so many desktops, storing so much valuable data and - unlike servers - with so many different end user configurations and too little central control. Imaging everyone would be a huge task, generating huge amounts of backup data. And even if those problems could be overcome with the use of software agents, plus de-deduplication to take common files such as the operating system out of the backup window, restoring damaged systems could still mean days of software reinstallation and reconfiguration. Yet at the same time, most organizations have a strategic need to deploy and provision new desktop systems, and to be able to migrate existing ones to new platforms. Again, these are tasks that benefit from reducing both duplication and the need to reconfigure the resulting installation. The parallels with desktop DR should be clear. We often write about the importance of an integrated approach to investing in backup and recovery. By bringing together business needs that have a shared technical foundation, we can, for example, gain incremental benefits from backup, such as improved data visibility and governance, or we can gain DR capabilities from an investment in systems and data management. So it is with desktop DR and user workspace management. Both of these are growing in importance as organizations’ desktop estates grow more complex. Not only are we adding more ways to work online, such as virtual PCs, more applications, and more layers of middleware, but the resulting systems face more risks and threats and are subject to higher regulatory and legal requirements. Increasingly then, both desktop DR and UWM will be not just valuable, but essential. Getting one as an incremental bonus from the other therefore not only strengthens the business case for that investment proposal, it is a win-win scenario in its own right.

PowerCLI: An Aspiring Automator's Guide

Topics: Altaro, Altaro Software, Backup, disaster recovery, data loss, data protection

Stop looking at scripts online in envy because you wish you could build your own scripts. PowerCLI: The Aspiring Automator’s Guide Second Edition will get you started on your path to vSphere automation greatness!

A Guide to Microsoft Office 365 Data Protection with NAKIVO Backup & Replication

Topics: NAKIVO, Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 ebook, Office 365, Data Protection, Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 backup, Office 365 backup, cloud backup

This white paper offers an overview of Microsoft’s shared responsibility model, the main threats to Microsoft Office 365 data, and how to counter them. It goes through the key considerations when choosing a data protection solution for your Microsoft 365 data, focusing on how NAKIVO can help protect your Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint Online data.