Seven Reasons to Back Up Microsoft 365 Data
Businesses are increasingly turning to cloud services to use and store their data.
Cloud services can make things more convenient for businesses by shifting maintenance to the vendor.
Plus, moving more critical systems to software-as-a-service (SaaS) can reduce costs compared to purchasing on premise hardware. One of the biggest players in this space is Microsoft®.
More and more businesses are using the cloud-based Microsoft 365™ (formerly Office 365®).
Microsoft 365 encompasses a full suite of tools, giving you a bundle for email, data storage, and productivity tools, to name just a few. However, when it comes to the retention and recoverability of Microsoft 365 data, it may be
helpful to consider a supplemental solution to help.
Customers look to their IT Providers to keep them productive and make sound strategic IT decisions for their business. As a result, it’s important you take extra steps to protect their data.
You don’t want to be in the unenviable position of explaining that data is unrecoverable.
With that in mind, supplementing your Microsoft 365 instances with additional
backup and data protection is essential. The following seven reasons are why this is critical.
Why should you back up Microsoft 365 data?
Why isn’t Microsoft 365 enough on its own?
1. Accidental deletion
It happens. A user sits down and accidentally deletes a folder with critical documents in it. It
could occur for any number of reasons—the person doesn’t realize the contents within a folder
or they may have nested their folders. Perhaps on Microsoft 365 email, they decide to delete old
emails not realizing one day they’ll need critical information from months or even years ago.
In addition, in the Business Standard edition, the recycle bin deletes once every 14 days by
default, although the administrator can set it to 30 days. If someone deletes information and
it isn’t caught quickly, they may be unable to retrieve the information. Having a supplemental
backup in place can help you prevent these issues and save your customers from huge
problems down the line.
2. Retention gaps
Microsoft retains email data as long as the user is active. But let’s face it—many people won’t
want to continue paying for a subscription after an employee leaves or is let go. This could lead
to the company losing important information or intellectual property stored within email.
Of course, you can always share mailboxes before an employee leaves. However, this can get
complicated as it relies on communication that an employee is leaving and is prone to error. Why
take a chance? N-able™ Backup retains Microsoft 365 Exchange data for up to seven years, so
you don’t have to worry about missing data when an employee walks out the door.
3. Insider threats
We all want to assume people have the best of intentions. And most employees are on the level.
However, sometimes, even some good employees can turn bad. For instance, someone may get
mad at their employer for a bad review and decide to delete critical data in retaliation. If they
do it and quietly wait out the 14- or 30-day retention period (assuming the company uses the
Business Standard edition), that data will be gone for good. Sabotage may be rare, but it’s a risk
you should account for. With a secondary backup in place on behalf of your clients, you can help
prevent this risk from becoming a reality.
4. External threats
Of course, malicious insiders aren’t the only threat—outsider threats are common as well. In
particular, weak passwords could lead to real challenges; for example, your end users may
reuse passwords across accounts. If they use a username and password combo that has been
breached before, then criminals may be able to find a match and break into an employee’s
Microsoft 365 account and steal or delete data. Another possibility involves spreading
keylogging malware on someone’s computer, then figuring out which keystrokes were
usernames and passwords. Either way, passwords can be a weak link that lets people break into
Microsoft 365 accounts.
Cloud-based apps like Microsoft 365 are high-value targets for cybercriminals. Finding ways to
take over user accounts or victimize users can be a lucrative goal for cybercriminals. Whether
phishing attacks aimed to push malware or account takeovers via stolen or hacked customer
credentials, cybercriminals increasingly target users of cloud services. For that reason, having a
strong backup is crucial for protecting their data.
5. Legal and compliance reasons
As you’re probably aware, many compliance regulations set rules around the amount of time you
have to retain data. For example, companies in the healthcare industry in the United States (US)
must keep medical data for six years at a minimum.
6. Customer experience
Part of your job involves providing an excellent experience for your customers. They come to
you to fix all things IT—you want to make sure you can provide that near one-stop shop for them
as much as you can. By having your own backup, you have greater control over data in the event
of a data loss incident.
Beyond that, you can offer customers greater peace of mind. Data loss can be catastrophic for
businesses whether it’s loss of customer information, financial data, or important intellectual
property. By running your own backup, you’re offering customers a greater assurance you’ll
stand as their business partner, ready to prevent data loss and its fallout.
7. Cost savings
There are plenty of reasons why someone may want to go beyond the Business Standard
edition of Microsoft 365, including gaining more features and applications. However, many
businesses may want to keep costs low and stick with the Business Standard edition. With
N-able Backup, you can offer your customers the benefit of additional data protection and longterm retention for Microsoft 365 data, if budget is a concern.