Office 365 has become a valuable and powerful tool for many businesses, but do you know exactly where your data is stored? And what if something happens and your data is lost, Microsoft has backups right?
Wrong. Unfortunately, many people are under the misconception that Microsoft has backups of all your business data, when in fact they don’t.
Microsoft operate a shared-responsibility model, in which they promise to carry out certain data protection responsibilities whilst expecting you to also take responsibility for other aspects.
They take responsibility for everything that could affect the Office 365 software on their end such as natural disasters, power cuts, hardware and software failure, etc.
They expect you to take responsibility for any cyber attacks, human errors, programmatic errors, etc. that occur.
Which if we’re honest are much more likely to happen than anything that Microsoft is responsible for, so it’s vital that you’ve got a backup solution in place to protect you from losing critical business data if anything bad should happen.
Even Microsoft recommends that you have a backup solution in their service agreement for Office 365
“We strive to keep the Services up and running; however, all online services suffer occasional disruptions and outages, and Microsoft is not liable for any disruption or loss you may suffer as a result. In the event of an outage, you may not be able to retrieve Your Content or Data that you’ve stored. We recommend that you regularly backup Your Content and Data that you store on the Services or store using Third-Party Apps and Services.”
Here are some of the reasons why backing up Office 365 is essential:
- Cyber attacks
- A cyber attack be it malware, viruses or hackers can do serious damage to your business’s critical data.
- Having a backup will allow you to restore your data back to how it was before the attack.
- Security threats from internal users
- You’d never expect one of your staff members to pose as a security threat to your business, but either maliciously or accidentally it can and does happen.
- Having a back up reduces the risk of your business’ critical data being destroyed or lost should something happen.
- Accidental deletion
- When you accidentally delete a file, it will be stored in Office 365’s recycle bin for a set amount of time and then it will be lost forever.
- But what happens if you don’t notice until it’s too late? Or something happens and a critical file is permanently deleted?
- Unfortunately, Microsoft does not cover this type of back-up and there would be no way to recover the lost file.
- Accidents do happen but at least if you have a backup solution in place your mind will be at ease knowing the file can simply be restored. Phew, crisis averted.
- Reduce cost of inactive users
- Office 365 requires you to have an active license for each user in order to access the data shared and stored in Office 365.
- If this user ever leaves and you want to delete their account to limit their access to your business’ data and free up the inactive license it may prove difficult.
- If you delete the account you would also lose any files that were created by that employee’s account, leaving you spending money on inactive licenses to prevent you from losing any of the files connected to them. Which can become very expensive.
- A backup solution will allow you to archive this data, so that you can delete old user accounts without running the risk of losing the data connected to them.
- Backup regulation compliance
- If your business is a part of a regulated industry like Healthcare, Legal or Finance you’ll be well aware of the strict backup regulations imposed on you.
- Many regulations require companies within these industries to keep detailed and complete records of all emails, files, attachments, etc. for a couple of years.
- The requirements of which are not guaranteed with the standard Office 365 backup.
- Having a backup solution allows you to securely store all of your data for many years, ensuring that your business is compliant with the regulations imposed by your industry.
- Reduce business downtime
- Imagine losing all your business data… scary right?
- When the worst comes to the worst you want to feel safe in the knowledge that 1. All your data can be restored and 2. That restoration can happen as quickly as possible.
- After all downtime is not only expensive but bad for business too.
- With a backup solution you can restore all your business data, reducing any unnecessary downtime and ensuring your business is back up and running as quickly as possible.
Having an Office 365 backup solution implemented within your business is a vital part of your disaster recovery plan; and ensures that if the worst comes to the worst you can always restore your data and have your business back up and running as quickly as possible.
Contact us today if you need any expert help or advice with regards to your back up solution for Office 365, we’d be more than happy to help.
