Should you Backup 365? Why and How...

THE LANDSCAPE

By now, most businesses have either already made the move to Microsoft 365, or will be doing so in the next couple of years.

The movement toward 365 is taking critical mass. The complexity and needs of backing up 365 is increasing due to the building-out of products, and the adoption of SharePoint and Teams (i.e. not just direct user data like OneDrive or Mail/Calendars).

• Teams growth has been nothing short of momentous – in November 2019 it reported 20m active users > March 2020 it had 44m > and in April, 75m…

THE PROBLEM

There is a common misconception that it’s Microsoft’s responsibility to protect your data – this is not true.

• Microsoft’s responsibility is to provide a highly available platform for you to consume.
• Microsoft 365 offers geo redundancy, which protects user’s availability, not their data.

Geo redundancy offers users protection against site or hardware failure—so if one of these issues occurs, they will not experience an interruption in their service. But it will not protect users from data loss

What’s the threat? Accidental deletion, retention policy gaps & confusion, internal & external security threats, and legal compliance requirements all can cause significant and irreversible data loss on an Office 365 platform.

Examples.

• High-level execs accidentally deleted an email, or misplaced a calendar event.
• Malicious employees leaked vital company data and purged their sent mail as evidence.
• SharePoint site, backed by a OneDrive for Business Folder, and a mobile user tries to sync with their mobile, and accidentally deletes all the files.

THE ADVICE

As an IT Partner and consultants, our stance is very clear on this one - we strongly recommend all clients backup Microsoft 365, as you do with all other important company data.

THE SOLUTION

Our preferred solution is very much set and forget, it just works.

It provides unlimited storage & retention.

Better yet, if a user leaves, you can remove their license (cost) and the backup/archive is still maintained.

It’s able to backup all these areas of 365:

• Exchange mail
• OneDrive
• SharePoint (new & classic)
• Calendars
• Contacts
• Teams (with chat & channel messages)
• Office Groups (including AAD users)

THE END

I hope you found this informative.

If you have any questions on this space, reach out.

I consult clients nationwide (and further afield) on a wide away of IT projects so am well positioned to answer any questions.

[email protected]

07739196028

Stay safe.