How to re-assign a device to an alternate BluVault user

Usually, when an employee leaves an organization, the IT team reclaims the user’s laptop or desktop device and entrusts it to another employee who is fulfilling that job responsibility. The alternate user could be a manager or a peer in the same team. But what about data that has been previously backed up from that device?

Frequently backing up data on endpoints is a well-accepted best practice. A good backup strategy can not only help keep an organization regulatorily compliant, it helps defend the company against ransomware and malicious data deletion threats from insiders. But, this backup strategy needs to have a provision to transfer ownership of the backup data to an alternate user at the time the physical device ownership is transferred.

Parablu’s BluVault for Endpoints offers a simple solution to these concerns. It offers the option to transfer the ownership of registered devices and data backup from these endpoints to alternate users. With BluVault, a device belonging to a ‘blocked’ user (i.e., a user whose license has been relinquished) can be reassigned to one or more alternate users with a valid BluVault user license. The user to whom the device is re-assigned* gets option to view, access, and download/restore backed-up data from the device – just as the original user would have. This features allows backup data availability to multiple users at once, while eliminating any impact on business operations due to employee separation or a prolonged leave of absence.

How to assign an additional user to backed-up device

Here is how you can re-assign a device using the Parablu Portal:

1. Login to the Parablu Portal

2. On the Parablu Home, go to the Users tab

3. On the List of Users page, identify the user whose device you want reassign to an additional user

4. Click on the Block button for the user (this is typically the user who has left the organization)

5. A new Assign Additional User option will be enabled for the user’s devices once the user is blocked

6. On the Assign Additonal Owners prompt, enter the details of the user you want to assign the device to and click Save changes.

7. Once done the assigned user will have the device listed in their portal login, under Assigned Devices and they will be able to access all backed up files and folders under it

Please note if you are using OneDrive for Business as the storage target for the backed-up data, it is possible that the original user’s OneDrive account might become inactive in 30 days (or whatever grace period Microsoft allows) from when their license is relinquished in Microsoft 365. In such cases, to ensure that the backed-up data in OneDrive is preserved, you may use BluVault’s Data Migration feature to completely migrate their backed-up data to a new OneDrive destination.

*Note that device re-assignment is possible only for a limited number of devices.  You may re-assign up to 10% of the total devices that are licensable with your current BluVault license, but no more. 

There are several such interesting data protection features that are built into BluVault which we’d love to show you.  Reach out to us at info@parablu.com or request for a demo here.