Backing up Microsoft Teams? You may want to read this

Although backup isn’t a new technology, it can be tricky to backup data that lies within applications with complicated, interconnected ecosystems. (Microsoft, we’re looking at you.) That’s why it’s a good thing that Veeam offers a custom tailored backup solution to help us out with that. In this blog post we explore some practical tips to help you back up Microsoft Teams data. Here are our favourite:

Check to ensure you’re backing up Microsoft Teams Data

This one might seem like a no-brainer, but the reason why we say this is because a lot of organizations don’t completely understand how and when Microsoft is responsible for backing up your data. The Shared Responsibility Model to clarifies this. Microsoft is responsible for underlying infrastructure and the continuity of the applications with Microsoft 365, but at the end of the day – they don’t perform any special recovery options in the case of lost data. (How many times have we deleted the wrong file, or spilled coffee on our laptops? You don’t need to answer that one out loud.)

Choose a Microsoft-friendly Backup Solution

Not all backups are equal, and they’re far less useful if they can’t properly back up Microsoft Teams data. Microsoft Teams is like a tiny octopus floating around in your Microsoft ecosystem, grabbing bits of data as it trails along. At the end of the day, the data is stored all over the platform, in places such as SharePoint, Exchange, and OneDrive.

What about the API that Microsoft provides for Teams backup? It’s relatively new, and not all backup vendors can support it. Choosing a solution that natively protects Microsoft Teams data will give you the most success when you finally need to recover data.

Compliance and Data Protection are not the Same

Occasionally we see IT teams who are using Microsoft features such as retention policies and litigation hold as a pseudo-backup. These tools are great for compliance purposes, but if your data was ever compromised, or encrypted, a full recovery likely wouldn’t be possible. This is why it’s so important to use a backup solution that is specifically designed with these Microsoft 365 features in mind.

SLAs Always Come First

This one isn’t just for Microsoft Teams backup planning. Keeping Service Level Agreements (SLAs) top of mind when crafting your backup strategies means that your time to recovery will effectively reflect your tolerance to downtime. This means that your RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective) should be carefully considered as industry-specific regulatory requirements may also be applicable to your organization.

Granular Recovery is Really Useful

Even though it’s important to be able to recovery an accidental deletion of a team within Microsoft 365, it’s also really useful to be able to restore individual files or chats within those teams. Native Microsoft tools just don’t enable this as a feature – another reason to consider a solution that was built for Microsoft 365.

Backup Can Actually Enhance eDiscovery Capabilities

eDiscovery – if your organization has ever received subpoena, then you know that eDiscovery can help locate specific pieces of data within Microsoft 365. That being said, backup with native Microsoft 365 data restore features can enhance this by enabling you to actually extract those files, in order to place them on a removable drive that can be given to the party who has issued the subpoena. This is just one example of how eDiscovery can be enhanced by backup designed for Microsoft 365.

Protect Teams Against Ransomware

There aren’t many people who think that Microsoft 365 is immune to ransomware attacks. However, busy IT teams don’t always have the time it takes to properly ensure that the data is backed up correctly, and ready for recovery. Tweaking a backup solution that isn’t meant for Microsoft 365 can leave gaps in protection, and have proved to be disastrous when hackers finally get into your Microsoft ecosystem. Ultimately, the key to protecting the data, is to store it safely in an offsite location. Which leads us to the last point below.

Flexible Storage Options are Amazing

Flexible storage options are nothing new, but organizations oftentimes get locked into solutions that don’t offer complete flexibility and scalability. Automated backups that don’t need babysitting only work properly if the storage target grows with the data set without compromise. This is why so many choose cloud-based backup. HostedBizz provides a completely Canadian backup experience, backed by data centers that span the nation. Choose the location and type of storage that suits your needs. It’s that simple.