Many businesses assume that data in Microsoft 365 is automatically backed up. It isn’t, at least not in the way most people expect.

Shared responsibility

Microsoft is responsible for keeping its service available and its infrastructure protected. You are responsible for your data, including recovering it from user error or attack. Microsoft’s own service agreement recommends that customers back up their content regularly.

What Microsoft provides

– Recycle bins and retention for deleted items (for example, around 93 days for SharePoint and OneDrive recycle bins, and a short default retention for deleted Exchange items, usually 14 days and extendable to 30)

– Version history for files

– Geo-redundancy to protect against datacenter failure

What it doesn’t cover well

– Accidental or malicious deletion discovered after the retention period

– Ransomware that encrypts synced files, which then replicate to the cloud

– Departing employees who delete data on their way out

– Account termination: when a license is removed, data may be deleted after a grace period

– Long-term retention and point-in-time restores

– Compliance needs for independent copies

What a third-party backup adds

– Independent copies stored outside your tenant

– Granular restore of mailboxes, files, sites, and Teams data

– Longer retention

– Protection against both accidental and malicious loss

What to protect

Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams at a minimum.

Choosing a service

Look for immutable storage, Canadian data residency, automatic daily backups, and tested restores.

DBR Soft offers Microsoft 365 backup. Contact us to protect your tenant. Contact us for more information.