Why don’t businesses backup Office 365?

Microsoft’s Office 365 suite now forms such a business-critical part of so many organisations, particularly after the surge in adoption rates seen during 2020. So why, if the products are so integral to how we work, don’t companies have an Office 365 backup in place?

The simple answer is that most businesses don’t backup Office365 because they think it’s already done. But this isn’t Microsoft’s job.

Microsoft offers geo redundancy, which protects against site or hardware failure and empowers users to remain productive in the event of an infrastructure issue. But Microsoft Exchange only runs a backup for up to 30 days as standard – SharePoint is 14 days!

So, yes, you have a partial disaster recovery plan and mechanism to protect Office 365 data, should the unexpected happen. But only for a short window. The misconception that Microsoft takes care of this on your behalf is therefore a dangerous one.

• If a colleague leaves the business for example, and you end their licence, you lose the entire contents of their mailbox and OneDrive for Business account – not ideal in cases where an audit trail of dialogue is required, or legal action stipulates that historic records must be presented.
• ‘Rogue’ employees, such as those wishing to intentionally hard delete data before they leave a company, tamper with emails, or even unknowingly download infected files, also pose an internal security threat.
• External security risks have also never been so great, so a regular, dedicated backup will ensure you have a separate copy of uninfected and uncompromised data that can be quickly recovered in the event of a breach.
• Point-in-time restorations are also outside of Microsoft’s scope, which can present retention policy gaps unless a dedicated Office 365 backup is in place.
• Organisations’ growing reliance on Microsoft Teams means more people than ever before are quickly spinning up this user interface to manage communications and collaborate. But channels can easily be deleted – whether accidentally or intentionally. This isn’t ideal if, again, an audit trail is required or if you need to refer to a conversation relating to a HR matter.

In short, you need peace of mind that you have quick and easy access to your Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Teams data.

Thankfully, this isn’t a complex nor expensive process, with backups available for only £1.50 per user. These backups can be cloud-based or on-premise, and can be set to run at varying intervals depending on the frequency that suits your specific requirements. You’ll also benefit from granular search functionality for flexibility and speed of data recovery, with multiple restore options available too.

To discuss your backup needs for Microsoft Office 365 or your wider business data, please contact us or explore our business continuity bundle, running until 31 March 2021.