Microsoft advises its customers to back up their Microsoft 365 environment. Despite this, a worryingly small number of customers actually do.
Email Backups Then and Now
Before Microsoft 365 and the cloud solution, customers had an on-premise Exchange Server that handled their emails. The Exchange email store was backed up as part of the customer total backup solution and in the event of an email deletion or mailbox corruption, the backups were used to restore. This data was backed up onto tapes (that were changed daily) and latterly onto other disk-based storage devices.
Fast Forward to the Microsoft 365 cloud solution and emails are now stored in the cloud (or Microsoft Data Centres) and not in the customers own hardware at their offices.
There is a common misconception that as the data is in the cloud, it is backed up, this isn’t the case. Having your email in the cloud gives you high availability of your data. This means that if there is an issue with the hardware your data resides on, it is relocated to functioning hardware, in milliseconds, meaning you likely won’t even notice the service blip.
High availability is not the same as a backup and if an email is lost or your mailbox is corrupted, you will need to go to your backups to for recovery purposes.
The Need for Backups Increases with OneDrive, Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Data
Before Microsoft 365 not only were your emails stored on a local server, but so were your files and company data.
As before, this was all backed up to tape or disk-based storage solutions and when needed the backups were used to retrieve lost or corrupt data.
As more and more data is now being stored and accessed via the cloud in Microsoft 365, the need to ensure this data is backed up becomes even more important.
Now your emails and files are in the cloud, meaning they are more available than ever before, the risk of corruption increases as the cyber risk increases. Having a properly secured Microsoft 365 environment is only part of the solution, what do you do if something bad does happen?
How Does Your Microsoft 365 Data Become Lost or Corrupted?
This is easier that you might imagine. A colleague may inadvertently have their password compromised, giving hackers access to their mailbox. They may fall for a phishing scam, or click a link, which runs malware - encrypting their mailbox. They may have a grievance and maliciously delete emails and files in an effort to cover their tracks or damage the business.
With Microsoft 365 syncing files to OneDrive, Teams and SharePoint any local problem on a colleague’s machine is replicated to the cloud storage. Should their machine get a virus and their files encrypted, the encryption synchronises to the Microsoft 365 environment.
When other users try to open these files, their machines may get infected too.
It is worth pointing out here that Microsoft does gives you some recovery and retention policies but as mentioned earlier these are not backups. Again, Microsoft themselves recommend customers back up their Microsoft 365 environment. Our solution to these problems is Pro-Networks M365 Backup.
What are the key benefits of Pro-Networks M365 Backup?
Streamlined Backup and Recovery: Pro-Networks M365 Backup ensures the safety and availability of your Office 365 data through efficient backup and recovery mechanisms. It offers automatic, regular backups of Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Teams data, ensuring that critical information is protected against accidental deletion, user errors, or malicious activities. In the event of data loss, Pro-Networks M365 Backup enables swift recovery, allowing you to restore individual items or entire mailboxes with ease.
Enhanced Security and Compliance: Maintaining compliance with industry regulations and data protection standards is crucial for businesses across various sectors. Pro-Networks M365 Backup assists in meeting these requirements by implementing robust security measures. It offers multi-factor authentication, data encryption, and access control mechanisms to ensure that only authorised personnel can access and modify sensitive data within your Office 365 environment. Additionally, the solution helps you enforce data retention policies, enabling compliance with legal and regulatory obligations.
Efficient E-discovery and Legal Hold: In the event of legal disputes or compliance audits, efficient e-discovery capabilities become essential. Pro-Networks M365 Backup simplifies the process by enabling fast and accurate searches across your Office 365 data, including emails, attachments, files, and conversations. Its intuitive interface and comprehensive search options allow you to quickly locate and retrieve specific information, ensuring compliance with legal requests and minimising the impact on your organisation's operations.
Complete Visibility and Reporting: Understanding the state of your Office 365 environment is vital for effective management and security. Pro-Networks M365 Backup offers comprehensive visibility and reporting features, providing detailed insights into your data backup status, security events, user activities, and system health. These insights help you identify potential vulnerabilities, track compliance, and make informed decisions to improve your overall security posture.
How do you backup Microsoft 365 Environment?
This is even easier than you think – you simply tell us you want this, and we enable it. That’s it – it’s done. No long complex set ups, no daily changing of tapes, no reliance on end users remembering to change USB drives – it simply works.
With prices starting from £4 per month per user, can you really afford not to be backing up your critical Microsoft 365 data with Pro-Networks M365 Backup?
Speak to us today to get protected.