Not all applications work well as software service offering. However, Full Disk Encryption certainly is one of them!
So, what makes an application a good SaaS offering?
It needs to fulfil some of the following criteria:
- The Service provider must be able to pass on cost reductions to customers when the service is scaled.
- It must be available and functional both on and off-line
- The application users should reap the benefit from large scale helpdesk and knowledge base
- Targeted and flexible installations for specific short term projects or personnel must be available.
Normally, an installation and deployment of laptop encryption requires the IT staff to install the main component on a server, configure, and deploy it to the laptops. This not only require server hardware and software, but often external support engineers to go onsite as well as training the in-house staff.
Full Disk Encryption is a good application to subscribe to as a service instead of buying it outright, especially when you look at smaller installations. When customers can eliminate these costs, but at the same time reap the benefit of large scale licence purchases from the service suppliers, SaaS is offering both time and money savings. Alertsec also has a web-based deployment platform so customers do not need to install anything – everything is handled from an account on the Alertsec website.
To subscribe to an encryption service is fully flexible and can be used for as short as one month. The service is pre-configured so installations are standardized and users do not need any knowledge of software or encryption.
Encryption is one of those applications that are help-desk intensive as users continuously forget their passwords – often when travelling and in different time zones. The fact that hardware sometimes crash, result in the need for information recovery. To be able to rely on helpdesk personnel doing this daily, rather than perhaps doing it once a year, is a huge help and one of the real benefits of running encryption as a software service.
When users lock themselves out, customers need to have someone on call to help unlock the laptop, even if the caller is in a different time zone. When a user has a major fault on their computer, the customer does not have the skill or experience to recover the information which often results in it being lost.
Laptop encryption does not need to be in contact with a server to work as the encryption is implemented before the operating system start up and is able to reach any servers. That way the encryption implementation only relies on being online during the deployment and updates. However, the encryption hardly ever needs to be updated as users seldom change and the same user has the laptop throughout the lifecycle. Not even password reset requires the laptop to be online as the helpdesk can help users over the phone.
Try it for a month – you have nothing to lose.