Many business tools are moving to the cloud. One popular option is Microsoft 365, formerly known as Office 365. This unified platform consolidates Excel, Word, and PowerPoint with collaboration and communication tools. Added apps and services help streamline operations, too. Simplifying your IT infrastructure can also cut costs and reduce duplication of effort. Still, when you’re leveraging the convenience of Microsoft 365, data backup is your job.
When all software was on-site on business servers and machines, you had complete control. Your IT team kept the systems up to date, virus-free, and running smoothly. They built in redundancy to ensure data recovery, and planned for natural disasters, human error, and malicious attacks.
Now, though, IT departments don’t have the same level of control. With the transition to Microsoft 365 and other cloud solutions, the job has changed. Though Microsoft ensures its users can continue to access SharePoint or Teams in the event of a disaster, this doesn’t mean they are responsible for backing up your data – that’s your responsibility.
Does Microsoft 365 backup my data?
Most cloud-based vendors say the same thing: you own and control your data. They will guarantee the availability of their infrastructure and services, but you are in charge of setting up your own backup to protect your data from hacks, viruses, or employee error.
While Microsoft 365 does offer backup and restore capabilities for lost data, two major issues arise when using their tools: lost data and lost time.
- Lost Data: though you can restore deleted data within Microsoft 365, you can only do so in the short term. For example, on OneDrive and SharePoint, items are retained in recycle bins for 93 days after you delete them from their original location. At the end of 93 days, any documents in these recycle bins will be permanently deleted. You should also know that if you accidentally delete a document, it will not show up in your searches, as recycle bins are not indexed, so make sure you know where to look.
- Lost Time: when it comes to data, Microsoft’s backup policies don’t guarantee a fast and easy recovery. While data can be recovered, the recovery process changes depending on the application you are using and requires technical expertise.
At the end of the day, Microsoft’s data center redundancy and data replication efforts focus on service uptime. If your data is breached, encrypted, or irretrievable due to a hardware failure, flood, or fire, you’re stuck solving the problem.
This is why you need your own data backup solution. We recommend following the 3-2-1 rule. Keep 3 backups of your data, on 2 different storage types, and at least 1 backup offsite.
Test Your Backups
Having a backup of Microsoft 365 data offers reassurance that your business can bounce back. Still, don’t get complacent just yet. Along with having a process in place to back up your data, also plan on testing backups.
Testing helps you learn how effectively you can recover following data loss. Plus, testing backups saves you from finding out in a crisis that something has been wrong all along.
Protect your business from data loss and lengthy downtime with your own data backup. If you need assistance getting started, we offer backup services and help companies get back up and running again if the worst does happen. Contact us to learn more!
