Have you considered how much of your essential company data is now stored in SaaS applications like Office 365 (and/or GSuite)?  While there are significant advantages in housing our business-critical data with tech giants like Microsoft and Google, data loss can still happen.

Today, 1 in 3 companies using SaaS applications have lost business-critical data, with 47% of that data loss caused simply by accidental deletion. Businesses face significant liability and/or disruption if a user deletes or overwrites a file, an email, or a record unintentionally, or if an employee leaves the company and takes their files with them.

While SaaS applications like Office 365 are always available, accessible from anywhere, and highly redundant, they don’t offer advanced protection against unexpected data loss of this type.

But I thought Microsoft backed up my data?

Sort of, but not in the way you might expect. For example;

  • If you delete an email from Microsoft Exchange Online, it will remain in your Deleted items for a period of 14 days. Using Exchange Online Powershell this can be increased to 30 days.
  • Sharepoint Online items are retained for a period of 93 days from the time you delete them from your original location.
  • Teams, Microsoft’s hub for communication and collaboration, stores meeting contents for 15 days before deleting.
Microsoft 365 does not, as standard, have a comprehensive back up solution.

 

What can I do to protect my SaaS Data?

SaaS data back up and recovery solutions are available. They unlink your critical data from the user who created it and the application environment and hand control back to your business. The four reasons you need to back up your Office 365 data are;

1. Fast Recovery

If an employee accidentally deletes a critical spreadsheet from OneDrive for example, Microsoft will not be able to recover your data. Even if those files are within your retention period, locating and restoring lost data can cost you both time and money. SaaS backs up systems have your data regardless of retention plan and allow your admins to easily recover your data quickly.

2. Cost

Retaining critical user data if employees leave a company can be costly without a backup solution in place. SaaS data backups allow you to salvage departing employee data without having to pay for their vacated license.

3. Seamless Employee Lifecycle Management

SaaS backups enable a smooth transition for employees as they cycle in and out of your business and maintain the data they created. These systems allow admins to restore departed employee data to a new account, download files directly, or simply archive a user’s dataset until their replacement is hired.

4. Recover From Ransomware Attacks in the Cloud

Ransomware attacks – especially in the cloud – are on the rise. SaaS backups prevent such attacks from causing significant damage by backing up data with SaaS Protection at regular point-in-time intervals, In the event of a breach you can roll back your data to a point in time before the infection occurred to recover un-encrypted emails and files.

If you’re keen to better understand the in’s and outs of Microsoft 365 we’re here to help. Make sure you subscribe to receive our monthly newsletter or contact our team directly today.