Microsoft O365 offers robust disaster recovery – but limited native backup and recovery.
When migrating your clients to the cloud, consider recommending a third-party Office 365 backup tool for faster, flexible recovery after a malicious attack.
Doesn’t Office 365 Include Backup?
The adoption of Microsoft Office 365 (O365) continues unabated. However, when moving to the cloud, many organizations are unclear as to whether O365’s native data protection and recovery mechanisms are sufficient. There’s also a lack of clarity about how organizations are backing up their data in the cloud.
It’s important to remember that SaaS platform providers, like Microsoft Office 365, take on the responsibility of application uptime and the underlying infrastructure. It is your client’s responsibility to manage and protect their vital business data.
Key Facts
- O365’s native recycle bins and version histories are not backups. They do not offer organization-level controls for the backup and recovery process.
- O365 Exchange Online offers robust high availability. However, Exchange lacks many options for client-controlled backup and disaster recovery solutions.
- Third-party O365 backup tools provide recovery options. Flexible retention policies enable custom retention periods, so your clients can meet governance and compliance requirements – and recover quickly from external and internal attacks.
Critical Justifications for Backing up Office
Businesses moving to the cloud face a number of mission critical issues if they don’t opt for a third party backup solution. We’ve put together a list of business critical issues and the associated risks.
Accidental Deletion
If a user is deleted, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that action is replicated across the network. A backup can restore the user, either to on-premises Exchange or Office 365. Without a backup, the user and associated data is permanently erased.
Retention Policy Gaps
Office 365 retention policies change frequently – sometimes without notice. Sometimes, the issue is that the IT administrator doesn’t understand what data is protected and what data is vulnerable. These gaps leave IT administrators scrambling to keep up with retention policy management. A backup provides longer, more accessible retention, where the IT administrators set the parameters, and store data in their desired location for easy recovery.
Internal Security Threats
Many businesses are experiencing threats from the inside, ranging from malicious deletion to purposeful launch of malware. With a backup solution in place, organizations mitigate the risk of critical data being lost or destroyed. Granular recovery time objectives can help roll back to a point before data was compromised, ensuring the system can be restored to optimal functionality with minimal business disruption.
External Security Threats
Malware and viruses have done serious damage to organizations globally in just the past year alone. A backup can easily restore mailboxes to an instance before the attack.
Legal and Compliance Requirements
With legal and compliance requirements changing frequently, a third party backup can ensure all required data is available during legal action or to meet any regulatory compliance needs.
Hybrid Deployments
Whether an organization relies entirely on Office 365 or deploys a hybrid approach to productivity (combining on-premise Exchange and Office 365), Exchange data should be managed and protected in the same way. Backing the data up to the cloud ensures that all the data is available in a single repository.
Office 365 Best Practices
Your clients that deployed Microsoft O365 must take action to protect and secure their cloud-based data. Best practices include:
- Third party backup: Deploy a third-party backup tool for fast and flexible data recovery and damage control after attacks.
- Third party archiving: Third-party email archiving is vital for heavily regulated and litigated organizations. These archiving tools help recover from extended Exchange Online outages.
- Education: Help key stakeholders understand the risks of data loss without a third-party backup solution.
Office 365 Backup For Fast, Flexible Recovery and Damage Control
Cloud-based applications face a unique set of internal and external security gaps. That’s why HostedBizz offers about Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365: to avoid all-to-common data deletion scenarios and retention policy gaps.
Your clients may need help in understanding the value in investing in a third-party backup tool. Â As your value-added partner, HostedBizz can help to prepare sales presentations that position the value of secure third-party O365 backup protection to protect against insider threats, the value of consistent recovery points, and importance flexible recovery options. Contact us today to request support in developing a branded presentation or other valuable O365 marketing data.