Backup solutions to protect Microsoft 365 data (E-mail, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint)
Microsoft has incredible data centers with purpose-built redundancies to protect client data against controllable incidents. But it’s critical to understand that Microsoft does not guarantee data retrieval, and there are inherent risks saving to the cloud. All businesses should protect their data by implementing a simple Microsoft 365 backup solution.
Here’s why that matters.
Your information is critical; losing it would likely be detrimental to your business. And while Microsoft has taken exceptional lengths to protect your information, their services do not include an incremental backup service nor guarantee retrieval of stored content or data- as stated in their Service Agreement, Section 6B.
The significant risk is user-related activities. What many of us overlook is Microsoft’s default retention period (typically 30 days). When a user deletes an e-mail or document or removes a license from a user, Microsoft naturally (and permanently) deletes the associated data when the retention period passes.
Consider the following real-world scenarios:
- A user inadvertently deletes a critical document or e-mail
- A third-party malicious actor breaches an account and deletes content
- Your IT team inadvertently removes a Microsoft 365 license when an employee is on maternity leave
Under each scenario, when the default retention period passes, the data is gone. Permanently. It’s a common misconception that Microsoft protects you against everything, but it’s simply not a practical expectation. It is your responsibility to implement additional measures to protect against these scenarios. Never assume the cloud is safe.
Ransomware in the cloud?
Did you know that content stored in the cloud can also be susceptible to ransomware incidents? When a user’s account is breached, a malicious party may hold the data for ransom. Incremental backups can be used to recover because your data is held independently elsewhere.
Get protected.
Every business that uses Microsoft 365 should implement a proper cloud-based incremental backup solution that sends data offsite (away from Microsoft to a secondary cloud). An incremental backup is ideal because it retains day-to-day versions, allowing you to recover to a previous version that was protected days, weeks, months or even years ago. Backup systems that are limited to the most recent copy offer insufficient protection.
We recommend Dropsuite; An automated cloud-to-cloud backup service that integrates directly with Microsoft 365. It is effective, efficient, affordable and easy to use.
Here are some of our favourite features:
- Dropsuite backs up your data 12x per day, offering numerous points of recovery per day.
- Dropsuite employs an ‘auto-discover’ policy which automatically adds new users to the process. There’s no need to remember to activate protection when an employee is onboarded.
- You can recover items granularly, such as a specific e-mail, document, or message in Microsoft Teams.
- You can browse historical copies and restore them in seconds.
- The service is SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and requires no hardware or software.
- Easy to setup – you will be ready to go in a matter of minutes
- Retain data long-term, even after a user has left
- Transfer a user’s data to another account
- Search a user’s content from the backup interface (web browser)
- Receive notifications when issues exist
- Data sovereignty for Canada
Dropsuite protects:
- Contacts
- Calendars
- Tasks
- OneDrive
- SharePoint
- Teams
Technical Information:
- Unlimited storage
- Unlimited retention
- Per seat pricing
- No minimum purchases
- No ingestion fees
- Advanced search
- Insights BI e-mail analytics
Security Information:
Dropsuite’s infrastructure is designed and managed in alignment with security best practices and a variety of IT security standards, including:
- SOC 1, 2 and 3
- FISMA, DIACAP and FedRAMP
- DOD CSM Levels 1-5
- PCI DSS Level 1
- SO9001 / ISO27001
- ITAR
- HIPAA
- 256-bit advanced encryption
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- TLS 1.2
- Data sovereignty is also very important to many of Dropsuite’s international partners. To that end, they provide storage in several countries. For example, they provide AWS data center support in Canada, ensuring that the data remains within Canadian borders, adhering to PIPEDA, the Canadian Privacy Act, and/or GDPR rules.
Dropsuite is easy to use and affordable. We actively use it to protect our Managed IT clients from common mistakes or user actions. If you have questions about the service or would like assistance setting it up, please reach out to us today and we’ll be happy to assist you.