“Do I still need backups?” YES!

Many businesses have moved to Microsoft 365 and thus have replaced their traditional on-premise email servers. This is fantastic from a reliability, security and simplicity perspective. That said, many Business Owners and IT Managers believe that this migration of email data to “the Cloud” means that they no longer have to backup that data. This believe is wrong.

Yes, Cloud-based email data (via Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace) needs to be backed up! When we think Cloud, we think our data is safe…someone else is just “taking care of it.” While these services are typically made redundant by vast amounts of hardware (CPU, RAM, storage, etc.), they are, technically, not backing up your data! In fact, Microsoft states as much in the “Service Availability” section (6b) of their Services Agreement:

b. We strive to keep the Services up and running; however, all online services suffer occasional disruptions and outages, and Microsoft is not liable for any disruption or loss you may suffer as a result. In the event of an outage, you may not be able to retrieve Your Content or Data that you’ve stored. We recommend that you regularly backup Your Content and Data that you store on the Services or store using Third-Party Apps and Services.

Also, it’s worth noting that Microsoft only keeps messages for 30-days after they have been deleted. If you were to have an employee that deleted email data – maliciously or accidently, then that data would be permanently deleted after 30-days. (Microsoft 365 offers “In-Place” and “Litigation” hold services that are exempt from this permanent deletion policy, but that’s beyond the scope of this current blog post.) Many industries have regulatory compliance requirements and such email deletion might put your business at risk.

We at GSDSolutions can help your company get a reliable backup solution in place in less than 20 minutes.  (The first-time backup of that data will take some time to complete depending on how much email data your organization is storing overall, but the backup setup process itself is rather quick.)

Want to Learn More?

Give our team at GSDSolutions IT Services a call at (650) 282-7695, or drop us an email at getstuffdone@gsdsolutions.io to learn more about our business IT services and how we can help you put a robust managed IT service program strategy in place for your business. We offer Managed IT Services, Data Security Services and Virtual Event Management Service, with a predictable cost model and a commitment to customer satisfaction.