Your data isn’t as safe as you think it is on Office 365. Did you know that 75% of the sensitive cloud data stored in Office documents is not backed up?
Microsoft Office 365 now has 180 Million monthly active users and if you’re reading this, you’re probably one of them. Office 365 is useful for allowing businesses and their employees to work collaboratively, from anywhere, using the latest programs like Outlook, OneDrive and Teams. This helps you to seamlessly share data across devices and programs and while there are many advantages to this, it’s important not to be complacent when it comes to the data you store on them.
Do you know if your Office 365 data is fully backed up? Can you access all of your data when you need it? It’s your responsibility to make sure your vital data is secure should the worst happen. If you’re thinking “Microsoft does it for me” you’d be mistaken. It’s a common misconception which could have negative consequences in the long run. While Microsoft are responsible for the structure and operating of Office 365, it’s actually down to you to protect your data.
But Why Is Backing Up Your Office 365 Data So Critical?
The following are six reasons as identified by Veeam and how backing up your data can solve them:
1. Accidental Deletion
Problem: If you delete a user, whether you meant to or not, that deletion is replicated across the network, along with all of their personal documents and data. You could lose information you never intended to, with no way of retrieving it.
Solution: Having a data backup in place means you can restore that user, either to on-premises Exchange or Office 365. The same goes for documents, emails or Teams messages.
2. Retention Policy Gaps and Confusion
Problem: Office 365 retention policies are hard to keep up with, let alone manage. Don’t lose data you need because you don’t understand or never changed your settings.
Solution: A backup provides longer, more accessible retention, all protected and stored in one place. This gives you easy recovery options, with an extended time period to retrieve data that was previously deleted, before it’s made permanent.
3. Internal Security Threats
Problem: Many businesses are experiencing threats from the inside, and they are happening more often than you think. You might think it will never happen to you, but you can never be too careful. With the average length of time it takes to discover a data breach being over 140 days, the likelihood is, you won’t notice until it’s too late.
Solution: Having a high-grade recovery solution mitigates the risk of critical data being lost, destroyed or tampered with, whether intentionally or accidentally. If your Office 365 data is backed up, you have the ability to restore it even after it’s been deleted.
4. External Security Threats
Problem: Malware and viruses have done serious damage to organisations globally in just the past year alone. Not only do they put your company data at risk, but also the security and privacy of your customers.
Solution: A regular, reliable backup can help you to easily restore your data to an instance before the attack, as you’ll have copies that are uninfected and can be quickly retrieved. Without this, you may lose any data that has been compromised.
5. Legal and Compliance Requirements
Problem: Not having access to the documents you need, when you need them, could cause issues should you be involved in any legal proceedings. Not being able to provide the data requested could lead to fines, penalties or legal disputes, which are costly and time-consuming.
Solution: Efficient eDiscovery ensures you can retrieve your data easily should you need to during legal action. Having secure data backup and recovery means you can also meet any regulatory compliance needs.
6. Managing Hybrid Email Deployments and Migrations to Office 365
Problem: Organisations that adopt Office 365 typically need a window of time to serve as a transition period between on-premises Exchanges and Office 365 Exchange Online. Some even leave a small portion of their legacy system in place to have added flexibility and additional control. These hybrid email deployments are common, yet pose additional management challenges.
Solution: Whether you’re migrating to Office 365 or have a blend of on-premises Exchange and Office 365 users, the right Office 365 backup solution ensures the exchange data is managed and protected the same way, making the source location irrelevant.
How Can Carden IT Services Help?
Don’t leave yourself vulnerable. There may be gaps in your data security you have never noticed before. If you need to get in control of your Office 365 data, Carden IT Services can help. We offer a number of products, solutions and backup services such as Veeam, Mimecast Sync and Recover, Trend Micro and Cisco Umbrella, to help you back up your data and stay protected from attacks. To find out more information, see our IT Services website.
Some information sourced from Veeam.