Does Microsoft Back Up Your 365 Data?

We’ve said it several times before. The last line of defense for almost all bad things in IT is a good backup.

Does it make sense that your Microsoft 365 data…emails, contacts, calendars, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Teams…should absolutely be backed up and protected.

Is it (I hear you cry)?

You mean by Microsoft?

Ah…no.

Ok, actually, kinda. But still, no.

Microsoft makes it very clear (laugh) that their “backup” goal is the availability of data. So it makes sure that your 365 data (all the stuff we listed earlier) is actually stored in at least two data centers, located in geographically different places.

Now if something happens to the servers in one data center (or the entire center or geographic region), there’s another copy.

But is that a true backup? Nope. Not when it comes to accidental (or malicious) deletion or manipulation of your data. Encryption through malware. Somebody deletes data.

In that case, Microsoft has some retention policies so deleted data can be recovered if it’s caught within a timeframe (usually 30 days).

So when data is deleted? It will ultimately be purged. Gone. Kaput.
That’s why we strongly recommend implementing a 3rd party (as in Not Microsoft) backup solution for all 365 data.

More and more companies, are adopting 365 technologies to replace traditional file servers.

But are they adopting 365 backup technologies to replace traditional file server backups?

That’s the question.

Contact us to discuss your backup solution!