Companies using the Office 365 suite should ask whether or not the Office 365 backup is a reliable solution for keeping company data safe. Backups are an integral part of business continuity and should be considered a top priority for cybersecurity.
Without a reliable backup of critical data, companies risk data loss through internal and external threats. This tells us that companies must find a way to backup data successfully and safely. But is Office 365 backup THE backup solution to use?
We will find out about that in this article. So, with all that said, let’s start.
Overview Office 365 Backup
To help paint a complete picture, let’s get an overview of the native backup capabilities of Office 365.
Microsoft Is in Charge of Storage
One benefit of using Microsoft’s native backup tools is keeping your backup data stored on the cloud. A cloud backup solution is preferred over storing data locally as the cloud keeps information secure in case of natural disasters.
Floods, fires, earthquakes, and other disasters Mother Nature throws at us can compromise physical backups by affecting in-house data servers. In addition, physical backups are no longer considered reliable due to the rise of internal and external threats.
This forces companies to up their digital transformation spending for data protection. Microsoft offers a comprehensive backup solution that stores data on the cloud.
Not Every Office Application Has Specific Backup Tools
Microsoft offers plenty of backup tools. Unfortunately, these backup tools are spread across different applications, making it difficult to know which tool to use for a specific Office 365 application.
In addition, some Office applications lack any native tools to backup critical data. The two applications that first come to mind are Yammer and Planner. Although not as crucial as apps like OneDrive, Outlook, or any base Office applications, companies using Yammer and Planner must find other ways to backup data.
In most cases, companies need to use Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive to backup data from these applications. But that isn’t ideal. Even though Microsoft can backup critical data through SharePoint backups, automated backups for OneDrive, and manage backups using other Microsoft Office products, some applications’ lack of backup tools puts your company’s data at risk.
Limited Retention Period
A huge drawback to using the native Office 365 backup capabilities is the limited retention period for SharePoint backups. Administrators can create SharePoint sites and use the application to backup data from other Microsoft products.
But in case you delete a site collection from your SharePoint sites, you only have 93 days to retrieve the deleted data, or you’ll never see it again. SharePoint backups can be handy, but the limited retention period and recovery support are huge drawbacks.
Microsoft Doesn’t Offer Protection from Human Error and Cyberattacks
Microsoft Office 365 is the best cloud solution tool for productivity, collaboration, and data management. However, a huge misconception is that Microsoft will protect data backups from human error.
Microsoft promises to keep your backups on the cloud and safe against system or hardware failures. On the other hand, it cannot promise to protect your backups from human errors such as accidental deletion and cyberattacks. Cyberattacks are a particular concern. A worrying trend in cybersecurity is the surge of ransomware attacks in 2022.
While we outlined that SharePoint Online and OneDrive will retain deleted items for up to 93 days, it is your responsibility to protect your data from human error and cyberattacks. Unfortunately, no software will 100% protect you from these hazards. That’s why it’s essential to keep automatic backups of critical data on the cloud.
Conclusion
Data protection must be a priority for any company that wants to improve its data security. One way to protect data is by keeping backups of important files. Office 365 offers a few reliable tools to backup data on the cloud.
However, it’s not enough. Microsoft says that data protection is your responsibility. If you’re after a solution that will back up data and protect critical information, go with a third-party backup solution specializing in data protection. So to answer the question of whether Office 365 backup is a reliable solution to keep your company safe, the answer is no.
