Microsoft BitLocker Reviews

I am a solution provider in Congo and I propose products such as Microsoft BitLocker to my customers.

My clients use this solution to protect their data in cases where computers are stolen. In this region, theft of computers from companies is quite common and the data that is stored needs to be protected.

The most valuable feature is the TPM (Trusted Platform Module), which makes the PC security stronger because somebody who is not from the team cannot access the PC without the decryption PIN. If the hard drive is removed from the computer then the data is still encrypted, and even a USB key can be protected by using this solution. This makes my customers very happy.

This solution is not cost-effective and it is easy to implement.

It is very easy to deploy BitLocker on machines that are running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 because it can be done automatically.

It takes a very long time to encrypt a disk, so I think that speed is something that can be improved. It can take more than two hours to encrypt a disk with one terabyte of data. When my clients are working, they don't really like having to look at a progress bar to tell them that the disk is in the process of being encrypted. If the encryption was faster then it would make the experience more pleasant.

I would like to be able to secure the hard drives of virtual machines.

Securing data transfer such as email and the more general internet connection would be very good.

They should improve the hybrid-cloud security and protect the network instead of just securing the computers.

I have been working with Microsoft BitLocker for less than a year.

I have not heard any feedback from my clients with respect to stability.

This solution scales easily. The server is centralized and every computer that joins the domain is automatically inserted. Each one is automatically configured and synchronized.

My customers are generally small companies with less than one thousand employees, so it would not be very easy to test scalability beyond that.

I have not been in contact with technical support. Rather, I use the forum to get information. They have great documentation, as well.

My client was not using another solution prior to this one. I proposed three different products, but they chose BitLocker because it is free. IT is not well understood by the clients in my country, so we need to offer services and they have to be at a low cost. They most often prefer to use solutions that are free, or included with Microsoft Windows.

It is very easy to set up and deploy Microsoft BitLocker.

You have to set up the central server, and the configuration may take a day or two. After this, all of you have to do is go to every employee and then launch it, after they choose a personal PIN.

I had some technical issues with one of my deployments, but everything was working properly by the end of the first day. My issues arose because not all of the PCs had an updated version of Windows 10, so it took me some time to work out how to do the upgrades properly. It is important because TPM 2.0 is not supported in Legacy. 

That was the very odd part of the solution, and what we needed to do was to make sure that all of the PCs had the same type of Windows license. Once this was done properly, most of the PCs could be encrypted at the same time. It still required going to every PC though, because each needs to be given a PIN and configured. This was a disruption to some of the employees and it would be better if IT had total control, being able to do this from a central server and then simply notifying each user of their PIN. If there were one thousand employees then this would take a really long time.

We perform the deployment of Microsoft BitLocker for our customers. Because each PC has to be checked after the server is running, it is easier to have more than one person to do this. I normally take one or two of my colleagues to assist me with this.

This solution is included with Microsoft Server and my clients did not have to pay for anything extra.

I am somewhat familiar with other solutions such as those by McAfee, Digital Guardian, and Trend Micro Endpoint Encryption. However, I do not know these products as well as Microsoft BitLocker.

Once I obtain certification on some of these other solutions, I will propose them to my clients as well. Digital Guardian is something that I have been reading about lately, and it looks very good.

The encryption solution was not something that I was really informed about, but I decided to study it and then propose it to my customers.

I propose two different deployment models; the cloud and on-premises. The internet connection fees here are expensive, so many people prefer to deploy on-site.

My advice for anybody who is implementing this solution is to have a good idea of what they want to do, prepare for it, and go for it. It is not really complex, yet it is a very rich solution to deploy.

The biggest lesson that I have learned from using Microsoft BitLocker is that it can help a lot of people, but it is not very well known. People need to be familiarized with this solution through discussion. Engaging customers and proposing it to them will really help with the security of IT infrastructure in an enterprise. You can secure all of your data, the transfer of your data, and even USB keys.

This may not be the best solution, but it is easy to deploy and easy to grow.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

We use Microsoft BitLocker for our endpoints, including laptops.

Instead of integrating with a third party, Microsoft BitLocker should have its own mechanism to safeguard the systems when they are not accessible for a long time.

Our organization has been using Microsoft BitLocker for a long time, and we have been solutioning it for the last three to four years.

We get immediate responses from the technical support team, and we haven't seen anything getting escalated. The support team should provide quick, permanent solutions.

Positive

The solution’s pricing is reasonable.

I would recommend the solution to other users. Nowadays, data is key to any company, and safeguarding data is the top priority. I would recommend that organizations use Microsoft BitLocker encryption to protect their data.

Microsoft BitLocker's recovery options have improved greatly over the last five to ten years. The solution's recovery works faster and does not cause too much downtime for the end user.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We use the product for data protection. 

The tool's most valuable feature is its ability to label data. 

While it helps mitigate unauthorized data access by enhancing file and system protection through encryption, the tool is really enhanced with the combination of other Microsoft Security and Compliance features like data labeling.

Microsoft BitLocker needs to be an all-inclusive solution. For example, a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) cryptoprocessor is required to use Bitlocker with your computer which keeps Bitlocker from adoption beyond Windows.

I have been working with the product for three years. 

I rate the product's stability a nine out of ten. 

We have 400 users for Microsoft BitLocker. I rate the tool's scalability a nine out of ten. 

I rate Microsoft BitLocker's deployment a seven out of ten. It is straightforward and is a matter of following guidance. You need three to four resources to handle the tool's deployment. Deployment takes around a week and a half to complete. 

Microsoft BitLocker's pricing is fair; I rate it a four out of ten. 

I rate the product a nine out of ten. 

This solution is for endpoint encryption. It helps us avoid data loss. 

Having encryption has been great. It's very useful. It's 256-bit encryption. It's very hard to break it to get at the data itself. 

It's stable and reliable. 

The solution can scale.

It comes bundled with other Microsoft solutions.

Technical support is okay. 

They should offer better login capabilities that are more secure. Right now, they only offer SSO. They need to offer multi-factor authentication. 

The support could be a bit faster. 

I've been working with the solution for six months. 

The solution is very stable. 

There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. 

The solution is very scalable. It comes inside a Microsoft bundle, and if you buy a bundle big enough, one that already fits your company's needs, then it will fit your encryption needs. 

We have six clients using the solution at this time. 

The support is pretty standard. It's fine. We have to wait one or two hours once we've created tickets. Of course, we would like them to be a bit faster.

The initial setup is a bit complex. It works on Windows, yet it may not be compatible with other operating systems.

We deployed the solution over the last eight months. We keep getting more customers and continue to implement it. 

We also manage the solution for the clients. 

In orer to buy ButLocker, you need to buy some other Microsoft products. It's not a standalone product. 

Typically, customers pay a monthly licensing fee.

The product is good at protecting data. I'd rate it nine out of ten. 

All of our hard drives are BitLocker-protected, and we use only protected USB sticks. We have no right to put unprotected USB sticks in our work notebooks, we must install password locks on the device and for notebook usage. I don't have any special knowledge or experience with such encryption, but I know that all of my hard drives are secure.

We use Microsoft BitLocker for security. If I lose my work computer or it is stolen, no one will be able to read the files on my hard drive.

I have a unique password.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the protection and ease of use. 

All I have to do is enter my password and create passwords for my USB sticks.

I don't see where any improvements in this software are needed, because I'm not sure what else we can use. The functionality is straightforward.

Some of the technical internal functions, such as encryption protocols or something similar, could be improved. But it makes no difference in terms of functionality for us or users.

I am not sure how long this solution was used before me, but I've been with the company for three years. 

I have been working with Microsoft BitLocker for almost three years.

I am not aware of the version we are using, I would have to consult with our system administrator.

I know we use some public clouds, but I'm not sure where the server for host encryption software is located.

I am aware that the solution works and is configured by a centralized server. I don't have to do anything with it. It would be a concern for our system administrators.

It's very scalable and doesn't have to be done manually because of the centralized tool for administration.

We have some experience with complete data protection and endpoint encryption, but we are using standard features like Windows, and Bitdefender.

The initial setup is very simple. I would rate it a five out of five.

We evaluated, and use Microsoft BitLocker and McAfee Complete Data Protection, but our primary software tool is Microsoft BitLocker.

Microsoft BitLocker is a good solution.

I would rate Microsoft BitLocker a ten out of ten.

We encrypt devices and disks that have the potential to be taken off-site, such as laptops, tablets, USB sticks, and USB disks. Basically, we encrypt any medium that has to be taken off-site. If we're giving out a USB stick to somebody, it is BitLocker encrypted. If somebody has to use a memory stick, the only way it gets out is if it is encrypted. 

We use the version that is native to an operating system.

It is free and native to the OS. We don't have to worry about upgrades or maintaining the product. You encrypt the disk, and you save the recovery key. That's it. The person puts their password in, and after that, it is up to them. If they forget their password, they have to bring it in to get it unlocked.

User profiles can be improved so that people can create their own passwords. It has one password per machine, which is a problem. We would prefer each user to have his or her own boot password. Each user can have a username and password or biometrics, such as fingerprints and iris scanner, integrated into the boot process, but I really can't see that coming anytime soon, if ever.

I have been using this solution for six or seven years.

It is stable.

It doesn't really need to scale. You use it as you need it and manage it with group policies. 

There is no need for support.

We've used a few different disk encryption products, and we've kind of settled on BitLocker because it is native to the operating system. It is simple, and there is no maintenance on it.

We also use Symantec at the moment, but we are retiring Symantec. We had trouble getting all the machines back into the office to change the disk encryption. We have a few left with Symantec. With Symantec, the version that we had was pretty old, and I wasn't sure if it would actually even work with some of the later builds of Windows 10. In terms of maintenance, with Symantec, every time there is a new build of Windows 10, you either have to defer the update while they update with Symantec, or you can install it and hope for the best. It is not a very satisfactory situation where you might have to wait six months before you can go up onto the latest build of Windows.

It wasn't complex. It just took me a while to figure it out and make it do what I wanted it to do. Everything is documented, and you just follow the documentation.

It is deployed on all new computers, and it is part of the build. It doesn't take very long. It takes only 10 or 15 minutes. While the disk is encrypting, you can do other things.

I deployed it on some of the computers. BitLocker is maintained as part of the operating system. If there are any updates to Bitlocker, they come out as operating system updates.

It is free. It is enabled as part of the operating system. Once you have an operating system license, you're licensed for Bitlocker.

I would recommend this solution. It is quick and neat, and it does the trick.

I would rate Microsoft BitLocker a seven out of ten.

We use this solution to protect our data in the event that it is stolen or a laptop goes missing. We make use of the encryption scheme.

Being able to encrypt an entire hard disk has been most valuable.

The solution could be improved if it was more user friendly. 

We have been using this solution for three years.

This is a stable solution. 

The customer service for this solution is excellent. I would rate it a five out of five. 

Positive

The initial setup is not difficult. You can set it up using policy levels. The pilot testing took less than one week.

I would recommend this solution to others. The best feature is that we can secure organization data using folder encryption. 

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.