Being electronic, flash memory drives are subject to electrical failure just like any other digital gizmo. However, certain models are better protected against physical trauma than others. So-called “ruggedized” drives are usually encased in aluminum or rubber. When it comes to accidental drops on pavement—or even the occasional running over by a rental car—they’re tough as a tick. Rugged SKUs may be no more exempt from damage from electrostatic shocks or dysfunctional USB ports than other flash memory drives, but at least your IT crew won’t have to worry about the depredations of normal wear and tear.

Speaking of wear and tear, it’s essential to take a hard look at the warranty behind any shipment of general-issue flash drives. Manufacturers run the gamut from prominent companies that are easy to contact to off-brand names without a branch office in your country. Buying from the latter can greatly affect your ability to RMA defective or damaged parts. Be sure to note any fine print in the warranty statement about commercial usage as opposed to personal applications, and be clear on the terms and turnaround time of the vendor’s replacement policy.

On the topic of turnaround time, your workers probably don’t want to spend any more time than necessary waiting to copy large files to and from their flash drives. Although nearly all such drives currently use USB 2.0, which has the ability to transmit up to roughly 32MB per second, only a few premium models actually come close to this level of speed. For rank-and-file employees, it probably isn’t worth spending extra on high-performance flash drives.

That said, you may want to keep your more tech-savvy professionals happy with faster drives. Some new models may use version 3.0 of the USB standard, which raises USB 2.0’s speed limit well past the read/write capabilities of any current flash memory. As USB 3.0 emerges—the interface is just beginning to appear in new devices at press time—consider a gradual migration to flash drives and computers that support it. Both the drive and the port must support the new standard in order to reap its “SuperSpeed” benefits.

There are a couple of other interfaces that have been used in flash memory drives, such as FireWire and eSATA. Avoid them. USB is easier to use, and version 3.0 is faster than either FireWire or eSATA. More importantly, because USB 3.0 is backward-compatible with older USB drives and ports (which will continue to run at their earlier speeds when used with USB 3.0 hardware), a flash drive using the new interface should be usable with the billions of legacy USB 2.0 ports in the world.

Security. Finally, there’s the important issue of data security. Your company’s IT staff can address most concerns related to USB flash drives with software, judicious policies, and an eye on the latest computer security news and updates. Key to this discussion is the need to allow workers to do everything their jobs require, yet close the door on preventable breaches involving portable storage devices.

Because USB flash drives are small enough to be easily lost, it’s important to ensure that neither corporate secrets nor customer data are at risk. Many units come with encryption software that can password-protect the data stored on them; your IT department may want to standardize on a single utility, of course. Some drives add to the level of security with hardware-based encryption, fingerprint identification sensors, smart card authentication support, and even combination locks. A few such drives are even trustworthy enough to be certified for use by government agencies and the military.

Flash drives also carry with them the potential for insider threats, both inadvertent and intentional. Because users often plug their drives into various private and public computers, the possibility exists that malware can hitch a ride onto your corporate network. And if a PC can be made to boot from an infected drive, it could bypass certain aspects of your existing security measures.

Your IT staff can use endpoint security software, BIOS settings, and common sense to reduce network exposure to vulnerabilities along this vector. Security utilities may allow administrators to set policies to monitor and/or whitelist the specific drives that can be used on corporate PCs, the types of files permitted to run from the drives (executables might be blocked, for instance), the categories of data that can be downloaded to flash drives (no CRM repositories, perhaps), and so on.

Malicious actions by employees or ex-employees are harder to prevent. A recent study described an increase in insider data theft coinciding with the recession’s waves of separations over the last year and a half. In many cases, newly severed employees used portable storage devices such as flash drives to pilfer sensitive information before walking out the door. Apart from pointing out that it’s critical to shut off network access to fired and laid-off personnel in a timely fashion, we’ll lump the rest of the responsibilities under IT policies and endpoint security. There are many ways for even non-techie employees to copy data and smuggle it out of the company, of course, so bear in mind that draconian limits on USB drives may be counterproductive in a variety of ways.

Portable Hard Drives

Unlike solid-state flash memory drives, hard drives use magnetic fields to store vast amounts of data on spinning disks. External hard drives designated “portable” are generally constructed with drives sized for notebooks. They hold less data than their larger, more fragile brethren destined for desktops and workstations. However, they provide much greater capacity than USB flash drives (up to 1TB), not to mention more speed on average and a lower price per gigabyte.

Most of our advice on flash drives also holds true when you’re selecting a portable hard drive for business use. Focus on capacity and cost, and pay heed to the warranty terms and the vendor’s reputation for service after the sale. Even though notebook hard drives (especially ruggedized external models) are physically tougher than desktop drives, they’re still more susceptible than flash devices to data loss and breakage when dropped.

Practically all pocket-sized hard drives get their data and power through USB 2.0 ports, but this is about to change. The new USB 3.0 is even more desirable for a hard drive than for a flash drive, as current examples of the former can easily outpace most of the latter as long as the interface doesn’t pose a performance bottleneck. USB 2.0 limits all data transfers to approximately 32 or 33MBps, but USB 3.0 could allow speeds approaching 600MBps. All else being equal, portable hard drives with 7,200rpm rotational disk speeds and larger caches of memory such as 32GB will provide the snappiest data transfers.

Some hard drives support full disk encryption, which generally offers stronger protection than the password ciphering programs bundled with many portable models. Other than that, the security topics mooted in the USB flash drive section above all apply.

Cloud Storage

As wireless infrastructure performance continues to improve, Web-based storage services become more and more attractive to mobile users. The ability to upload and download data from anywhere there’s a connection is a plus, as is the notion of scaling up capacity without having to replace a drive.

Whether your company opts to use a third-party service or to provide Web-accessible storage in-house, security is an imperative. Data must be protected in transit as well as on the server, which means that the client’s applications must be fully patched at all times. There must be an offsite backup of all data, too.

As you research third-party providers, be sure to compare not only the cost and capacity per user, but also the ease of use of the up/download interface. And if access requires a particular browser or client application, verify that it’s compatible with your workers’ mobile gear. Don’t forget to ask for references, as current users can give you insight into a service’s uptime and problem resolution.

by Marty Sems