How to ensure your Microsoft 365 data is backed up

Chances are right now you have a Microsoft 365 application open. Over one million companies around the world rely on the suite of Outlook, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams on a daily basis. They’re mainstays of modern business that virtually everyone is familiar with and they’re provided by one of the biggest names in the tech industry so what possible downside could there be?

Well, despite the ubiquity of Microsoft 365 applications, many businesses don’t know that Microsoft’s native tools don’t always support data backup and recovery. That is, until an application crashes or an important file goes missing and no recovery is possible. Making matters worse, not all backup and recovery solutions are built to support Microsoft 365 data and applications – leaving businesses to wonder if they’re protected from accidental or malicious data loss when they should be able to rest easy knowing that their files are safe and recoverable.

The good news is, if you’re a client you don’t have to worry! Our backup and recovery capabilities extend to all of your critical Microsoft 365 and OneDrive data, backing up applications, files, folders and individual email attachments. This ensures that when the Excel spreadsheet you spent all day building disappears you can restore it (and a bit of your sanity) in seconds.

If you aren’t yet one of our backup and recovery clients, here are the questions you should be asking to ensure that your Microsoft 365 backups are secure and available for seamless recovery:

1. What Microsoft 365 data does the solution back up?

Not all backups are the same. As mentioned above, some backup and recovery solutions – and service providers – don’t offer Microsoft 365 backups. Others may have some backup capabilities for Microsoft 365 but not for all of the users, groups or sites that you need to protect. When this is the case you have two options: either layer on another backup solution/provider or replace your existing backup solution/provider with one that covers all of Microsoft 365 (and all of the other apps and systems your business needs to stay in business). Whenever possible, we recommend integrated, unified solutions and services to ensure that protection is as comprehensive and easy to manage as possible.

2. Are Microsoft 365 backups encrypted?

From the time a Microsoft 365 backup is performed to the time it’s stored and recovered, it needs to be protected. If you’re storing backups of Microsoft 365 in the cloud (which you should be) backup protection both in-transit and at rest is essential, particularly for sensitive or confidential files. Encrypted backups of Microsoft 365 ensure that the data you’re backing up stays safe from unexpected views and edits. This is vital for modern businesses because recovering data that’s already compromised is nearly as damaging as not being able to recover it in the first place.

3. When you need to recover from a Microsoft 365 backup what are your options?

Speed is everything when it comes to backup and recovery. After all, downtime following data loss costs your business both time and money. That’s why the most important point to consider when choosing a Microsoft 365 backup solution or service provider is what the recovery process entails. To begin, a fast recovery should be your goal, the best Microsoft 365 backups can offer recovery of a file in seconds and larger volumes of data in a matter of minutes. That said, there are a number of factors built in to making sure that recovered Microsoft 365 data is as valuable as you need it to be.

Ease of recovery: if you’re not working with a service provider for your Microsoft 365 backup and recovery needs, it’s crucial that you’re able to quickly and easily perform a backup recovery ranging from a single lost file to all of the data on OneDrive.
Granular restore capabilities: Recovering a single Word doc or email needs to be as easy as accidentally deleting them. Make sure that the solution or provider you work with has the ability to perform granular recoveries so that a single lost file doesn’t necessitate a time-consuming complete restore.
File search capabilities: If you lose the final, approved version of a PowerPoint presentation recovering the first draft of the presentation will seem like salt on the wound, rather than the solution you’re looking for. Find a Microsoft 365 backup solution or service provider that enables individual file search capabilities to make your recoveries accurate and effective.