The best computer encryption product available today
September 30, 2019

The best computer encryption product available today

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with BitLocker Drive Encryption

We are using it across the whole organization. It has been implemented campus-wide, and each department is responsible for deploying/supporting Bitlocker for all its users. We are using it across our organization to fully protect desktops, especially in cases where users are accessing sensitive data. It addresses the business problems of how to protect computers in the best manner possible, in which the computers either store or access sensitive data (this could be either be local or across the network).
  • It is fairly easy to use, from both a technician and users point of view. The install itself is pretty simple, and setup of the software is also fairly simple. For users, it is easy to use the software to encrypt the computer.
  • It doesn't seem to use a whole lot of system resources when the encryption is enabled on the computer. You shouldn't experience any slowness of the computer, other than the time it takes to first encrypt the computer.
  • It serves its main purpose very well, and that is to protect computers from intrusions/data breaches. It is particularly good for protecting computers that are accessing/storing sensitive/confidential data.
  • Users need to make sure their computer can support encryption. There is a special TPM chip that is needed to be able to encrypt the computer, but most newer computers today should have this built-in.
  • There is some slowness of the computer with the encrypting/decrypting part of the software. This part can also take a long time to complete, depending on the size of the hard disk.
  • It is very important that the recovery key is never lost, or else the user may never be able to unlock their drive. Microsoft should look into maybe having a feature which would automatically upload the recovery key to the cloud (in a secure manner).
  • The biggest positive impact it has on ROI is the cost savings, since there is no cost to using the software.
  • Since it's widely available to anyone with a Windows computer, and the program is built into the operating system, there is no need to really install anything. This helps to save time of the IT department having to do installs, and also keep track of licensing, etc.
This was formerly called Symantec PGP encryption. We selected BitLocker since this is what the University has deployed and is currently supporting. BitLocker has many advantages over Symantec PGP, as BitLocker is built-into all Windows computers. With PGP, this was a commercial product that had to be installed on each machine. That product also was not as easy or intuitive to use as BitLocker, and there were also more issues/problems that occasionally occurred with PGP.
It has very good vendor support. Microsoft has a wealth of resources for the product, which includes knowledge base articles on their website, various other documentation resources, and training videos. They also offer phone support for users that would like to talk to a Microsoft support rep. I also think that this product has more industry support across more organizations/companies that other encryption products.

Do you think BitLocker Drive Encryption delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with BitLocker Drive Encryption's feature set?

Yes

Did BitLocker Drive Encryption live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of BitLocker Drive Encryption go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy BitLocker Drive Encryption again?

Yes

It is well suited especially for users that access or store sensitive/confidential data on their computers. In the case of where users are accessing confidential data over the network, it is highly recommended to use Bitlocker to encrypt the computer. In the case where users are storing confidential data on their computer, it should be a requirement that BitLocker is used/enabled.

It would be less appropriate if someone was using a computer and they were not dealing with any sensitive data, or in cases where the computer is used for recreational purposes (browsing the web, playing games, etc).