For over 10 years, we’ve been plugging our toolkit with only the most sophisticated solutions the market has to offer. And recently, we were reeling with excitement over the news that two of our trusted partners — Veeam and Microsoft — are partnering to bring unprecedented speed and scale of backup and recovery experiences to customers. But why is the new Microsoft 365 Backup solution currently making headlines, and what benefits will it bring to SMEs across the UK? Let’s explore…

As business continuity strategies come into sharper focus, the tech world has seen rising demand for robust backup solutions. More specifically, customers are becoming increasingly aware of their shared responsibility to own and protect their critical data — a principle that has formed the bedrock of Microsoft’s Software as a Service (SaaS) offering for over a decade. The widespread adoption of Veeam’s Backup for Microsoft 365 solution, which is being used to protect over 15 million users today, is testament to this ongoing shift.

Safeguarding services including Microsoft Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Teams, the critical data service offers peace of mind against everything from accidental file deletion and insider threats, to legal and compliance requirements, hybrid email deployments, and more. It also boasts the lowest recovery point objectives (RPO) — in other words, the maximum amount of data that can be lost after a disaster occurs — the broadest set of recovery options, and the flexibility to back up Microsoft 365 data to any location.

By integrating the existing solution with the newly-launched Microsoft 365 Backup, via their backup APIs — essentially protocols that allow different software applications to communicate with each other — Veeam is set to offer Microsoft customers new innovations and experiences that will enhance data protection, bolster ransomware recovery, and keep business operations running seamlessly.

“Microsoft has revolutionised the ways organisations communicate. And with every update, its proposition gets even more exciting,” said Tim Mercer, CEO of Vapour. “But let’s not forget that a comprehensive backup isn’t one of the tool’s in-built capabilities. Disasters can strike at any time and paralyse firms, irrespective of their size or the sector they operate in, which is why a third-party backup is an essential part of any business continuity plan.

“Serving over 400,000 companies across the globe with their data backup and recovery solutions, with 4.7/5 star distinction via Gartner Peer Insights, Veeam is the natural choice to bridge this gap for Microsoft. And, as a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (Microsoft CSP) — not to mention a Veeam partner — we’re the safe pair of hands customers need, to help manage their stack and make supplier relationships as headache-free as possible.”

With the integration already underway, general availability of Veeam’s updated offering is expected within 90 days of the Microsoft 365 Backup service being available.

Want to learn more about protecting your cloud and SaaS environments with our  wraparound Microsoft solution? Get in touch today.

For those who don’t know, ChatGPT is a state-of-the-art natural language processing tool, driven by AI technology, that has been making waves across a whole host of sectors recently. Now being leveraged as the brainpower behind Microsoft 365’s latest update, Copilot, the platform is set to have a greater number of applications, and more intuitive functionality, than ever.

So, what does this mean for the UK’s most ambitious organisations? Here, Vapour CEO Tim Mercer offers up some insight…

Give yourself five minutes on ChatGPT and you’ll instantly see how powerful the tool is. Integrate it into the world’s leading productivity cloud, and that impact will grow tenfold.

The architecture has been trained on an endless corpus of text data, making it an ideal solution for natural language processing and word-based tasks. Augmenting organisations’ existing Microsoft systems or able to be implemented as an entirely new solution, it’s a truly game-changing development for firms looking to stay ahead of the curve in terms of productivity and innovation.

Of course, being in its infancy, there are a handful of iterations to come before the service works seamlessly. But, more than simply embedding ChatGPT into Microsoft 365, here are three ways the enterprise-ready Copilot AI system is set to supercharge productivity…

Augmenting the customer experience

With features such as chatbots, virtual assistants, and automated support, leveraging the power of ChatGPT to enhance communication capabilities will take the customer experience to a whole new level — improving engagement by providing timely and accurate responses to enquiries.

Crucially, this won’t replace humans. Instead, it will free up teams for more complex, revenue-generating tasks — leaving manual, laborious work in the hands of capable technology, and maximising business efficiency across the board.

Straightforward integration

For businesses already using Microsoft 365, the integration of ChatGPT will be a straightforward process. Microsoft has announced that the technology will be merged into the platform's existing tools — including Teams, Word, and Outlook — meaning features will be available for use almost immediately.

For companies looking to implement the pairing as an entirely new solution, the process is equally simple. Microsoft's suite of tools is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, making it easy to get started with the platform. Plus, as a cloud-based solution, it’s ideal for geographically dispersed teams too — with applications able to be accessed from any location, at any time.

Unlocking seamless collaboration

This update is significant from an internal productivity perspective too. It means that you can finally say goodbye to clunky interfaces and hello to seamless collaboration. Imagine being able to ask Microsoft 365 a question in the same way you would ask a colleague, and getting an instant response that is accurate and helpful. 

And that's not all. ChatGPT is also capable of generating text — not just interpreting it — which means that Microsoft 365 can now help you write emails, reports, and even presentations, as well as summarise key points of an email thread or Teams meeting. No more staring at a blank page or struggling to remember details. Just tell Microsoft 365 what you want to achieve, and the AI will do the heavy lifting.

At Vapour, we believe that technology should be harnessed to empower businesses and individuals to achieve their full potential. If you are interested in learning more about how Vapour can help you provide a competitive edge with Microsoft 365, get in touch to discuss your custom solution, today.