Office 365 Backup
Microsoft Office 365 is now being used by over 120 million business users. Is your company one of them? If so, you may be asking, “Do I even need to backup Office 365?” The short answer is YES!
Microsoft may host your Office 365, but they don’t take responsibility to maintain a backup of your data. Ownership of your data in the cloud, being able to set up, access, recover or move it is the responsibility of the user, not Microsoft’s.
There is a mistaken belief that data in held in the cloud for example Office 365 doesn’t need to be backed up because it's safe, but that is a fallacy. The fact is, any business using Office 365 will need to backup their data in the cloud as they would on a PC.
Besides ensuring business continuity and helping you reduce the risk of data loss, here are a few reasons why you should backup Office 365:
1. Your data is in the cloud, but where is it?
According to the Microsoft: “Customer data may be replicated in different data centres across the world to enhanced data durability in case of a major disaster”
Many people don’t realise that their data maybe stored separately. So, the only way to backup it all up, and restore all of it, is with a system designed to find it all, store it all, and restore it all. This is not an easy task, and sometimes nearly impossible to do with the native Office 365 backup tools.
2. Outlook doesn’t backup emails older than 30 days:
Microsoft does not keep emails older than 30 days one they have been deleted from your recycle bin. Add to this end-users who are sometimes forced to delete old emails to make storage space. There are potentially issues where destroying emails/data records that may be required for legal or regulatory compliance, should your company need to provide them in the future.
3. Regulated Industries have stricter backup regulations:
If your company is in a regulated industry, you may have regulations and requirements for access to data that goes well beyond typical backup methods. HIPPA, GDPR, ISO etc. Regulatory bodies often require firms to keep complete and accurate records of email, attachments, files and related information for many years. Because Office 365 backup is a limited time backup, compliance with these regulations is not guaranteed. Office 365 does have optional backup/archiving available for purchase, but this is at a premium cost.
4. Ransomware Hackers are out there:
Data loss is possible in this new world of hackers and data hostage viruses. The only way to truly protect your business from a ransomware attack is by having a full and complete backup and archive of all your data. Anything less, and your business is in danger of being severely impacted by the loss of data. Only a backup and archive tool specifically made for this kind of process can handle that task easily and quickly.
5. Can you afford to be without your data?
Peace of mind is a phrase used a lot in modern businesses. Your business cannot exist without the vast amounts of data it creates and uses every day. Ensuring business continuity by keeping full and accurate records of your data with complete data backups is like a good insurance policy against the risk to your business of data loss.
Microsoft may host your Office 365, but they don’t take responsibility to maintain a backup of your data. Ownership of your data in the cloud, being able to set up, access, recover or move it is the responsibility of the user, not Microsoft’s.
There is a mistaken belief that data in held in the cloud for example Office 365 doesn’t need to be backed up because it's safe, but that is a fallacy. The fact is, any business using Office 365 will need to backup their data in the cloud as they would on a PC.
Besides ensuring business continuity and helping you reduce the risk of data loss, here are a few reasons why you should backup Office 365:
1. Your data is in the cloud, but where is it?
According to the Microsoft: “Customer data may be replicated in different data centres across the world to enhanced data durability in case of a major disaster”
Many people don’t realise that their data maybe stored separately. So, the only way to backup it all up, and restore all of it, is with a system designed to find it all, store it all, and restore it all. This is not an easy task, and sometimes nearly impossible to do with the native Office 365 backup tools.
2. Outlook doesn’t backup emails older than 30 days:
Microsoft does not keep emails older than 30 days one they have been deleted from your recycle bin. Add to this end-users who are sometimes forced to delete old emails to make storage space. There are potentially issues where destroying emails/data records that may be required for legal or regulatory compliance, should your company need to provide them in the future.
3. Regulated Industries have stricter backup regulations:
If your company is in a regulated industry, you may have regulations and requirements for access to data that goes well beyond typical backup methods. HIPPA, GDPR, ISO etc. Regulatory bodies often require firms to keep complete and accurate records of email, attachments, files and related information for many years. Because Office 365 backup is a limited time backup, compliance with these regulations is not guaranteed. Office 365 does have optional backup/archiving available for purchase, but this is at a premium cost.
4. Ransomware Hackers are out there:
Data loss is possible in this new world of hackers and data hostage viruses. The only way to truly protect your business from a ransomware attack is by having a full and complete backup and archive of all your data. Anything less, and your business is in danger of being severely impacted by the loss of data. Only a backup and archive tool specifically made for this kind of process can handle that task easily and quickly.
5. Can you afford to be without your data?
Peace of mind is a phrase used a lot in modern businesses. Your business cannot exist without the vast amounts of data it creates and uses every day. Ensuring business continuity by keeping full and accurate records of your data with complete data backups is like a good insurance policy against the risk to your business of data loss.
Protect your data for no more than £5.00 per month per mailbox. 3 daily backups held for 12 months for all your emails, contacts, calendar entries, all cloud documents (stored in One Drive & SharePoint) and Teams data.