The onslaught of mobile IT is threatening to send overworked support staff over the edge.

Companies love getting their staff to work remotely through PDAs and other mobile devices, but this increases the risk of data loss through human error or hardware problems. This in turn puts pressure on IT support departments to retrieve the information, or so research published this week claims.

Nineteen million wireless data system devices are expected to be on the market in 2002. But never fear, because US-based Previo has brought out this report to get an unashamed plug for eSupport Essentials, its latest data-protection product.

This takes snapshots of a system's hard disk content and stores the information in a compressed form on a server. The idea is that non-technical savvy staff can then "roll back" their system to a point before the problem started and solve the issue without involving the support helpdesk.

Alternatively, the system can be accessed by desk staff to repair the damage remotely. All this promises to "alleviate some of the pressure that IT managers are under".

Lost data costs European businesses more than $4.5 billion every year - with the UK accounting for a quarter of this, according to Previo.

It calculates that 42 per cent of lost data results from hardware failure, while human error accounts for 31 per cent, software corruption 13 per cent, viruses seven per cent and theft five per cent. ®