Microsoft 365: Why backup is essential for your business

Several issues can arise:

• Internal and external security threats
• Accidental data loss
• Unclear archiving policies
• Legal and compliance obligations
• Email management and Microsoft 365 migration
• Teams data organisation

Internal and external security threats

Internal security threats are constant. They may be deliberate — an employee deleting or falsifying emails, folders or evidence to hide information or cause harm. Or they may be accidental — an employee downloading malicious files, opening suspicious attachments, or inadvertently leaking access credentials.
The consequences for the business can be significant: data deletion, malware, viruses, encryption with ransom demands (ransomware), and sale of company data.

Accidental data loss

When a user account is deleted — whether intentionally or not — their account and mailbox are also removed, impacting the entire network. Microsoft 365’s recycle bins and history provide only limited protection against data loss. Once Microsoft 365’s redundancy has permanently deleted the data or the retention period has expired, restoration becomes impossible.

Two types of deletion exist in the Microsoft suite. The first is soft deletion: a deleted folder goes to a recoverable items folder for a defined retention period. The second is hard deletion: once an item is marked for permanent removal, it cannot be recovered.

Unclear archiving policy

Microsoft 365 has its own data retention rules, but they are limited. They can reduce data loss risk but do not constitute a backup solution. Microsoft does not guarantee your backups — which is why it is essential to put additional solutions in place to limit the impact of any incident.
These solutions offer scheduled, automated backups and give you access to a full backup history.

A second layer of security can be added, such as backup to an external server (e.g. OVH) or similar.

Legal and compliance obligations

You may occasionally need to retrieve specific content for legal proceedings — files, mailboxes, or other data. While Microsoft offers litigation hold and retention policies, these do not constitute a true backup solution. As noted above, this “backup” is only valid short-term. It is therefore a legal and compliance requirement to have a Microsoft 365 backup readily accessible at all times.

Email management and Microsoft 365 migration

When a business adopts Microsoft 365, it goes through a transition period during which its local Exchange server must synchronise with Microsoft 365 Exchange Online. Various management issues can arise if part of the old system is retained. For this reason, when selecting a Microsoft 365 backup solution, it is important to consider hybrid email management to ensure all mailboxes are backed up uniformly.

Teams data organisation

With the explosion of remote working, Teams has become a massively used tool, enabling business continuity for many organisations. Teams brings together all Microsoft 365 services, enabling better cooperation and communication between teams. It is therefore essential to protect Teams access and data, and to always maintain copies of documents shared within it.

From a legal or compliance perspective, having backups provides peace of mind. And if an accidental deletion of a team, folder, conversation or channel occurs, restoration can be carried out very quickly.
Another scenario: if a member behaves inappropriately and deletes messages afterwards, backups allow the conversation to be recovered and reviewed.

It is worth noting that 85% of cyber incidents originate from inside the organisation, and 80% of businesses that permanently lose their data do not survive the following 12 months.
For all these reasons, having one or more Microsoft 365 backup solutions in place is essential.

Whatever happens, with the right solutions in place, your data remains accessible and its security is guaranteed.

For remote workers, it is also worth implementing a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to secure your staff’s connections and prevent potential data breaches.