Microsoft 365 (previously known as Office 365) is a cloud platform for its popular Office applications. Microsoft has many different plans to meet individuals and businesses where they are. For many businesses, Microsoft 365 is absolutely essential! So, the question becomes, is your essential tool being backed up properly? Most people already know they should be backing everything up, but few do. Let’s explore why you absolutely need to back up your Microsoft 365 data!
1.All your important data probably flows through one of their products!
Think about it – how often do you send mission-critical information through Outlook or crunch the ever-important payroll info inside of Excel. Almost every business uses at least part of Microsoft’s omnipresent software package. The Office suite has become a de facto standard across the world of business. You should be ensuring that your data is backed up with it!
2.Legal requirements!
Okay, so this one won’t affect everyone, but those who need this may not even realize it. Many different types of businesses are required to keep data for a long time (sometimes up to 10 years). If you don’t have backups, you can find yourself in deep trouble. As an example, a lawyer subpoenas a business for data about a former client. This business didn’t keep any of the information, so they could be held liable or even charged with obstruction. That is obviously not going to end very well but can be avoided very simply. (This example has happened to at least 3 businesses the author knows)
3.Peace of mind.
This is one that is hard to quantify, but all business owners know that peace of mind is incredibly important. It is something that is very hard to get! Having a true peace of mind that your data is safe and easily recoverable is invaluable. Knowing that if your business finds itself in a disaster (like the many that have happened recently across the country), you can recover in 24 hours is amazing. You will find that you sleep just a little better when you no longer have to worry about data protection.
4.Microsoft is NOT backing up your data!
This is something many people don’t realize. The only thing Microsoft handles is the infrastructure for you when you use their products. They don’t handle data integrity for you. You need to ensure you are backing up your own data or you stand to lose it. Microsoft’s own website claims that you own your data. If you are not careful, you stand to lose all your data from just one incident!
5.Chances are, you can’t afford to not back up the data!
The cost of data recovery often far outweighs the cost of backups. Forensic data recovery often costs several tens of thousands of dollars, whereas it is far cheaper to backup and recover the data. Many businesses can’t really afford several tens of thousands of dollars to just recover data, and many will just forgo the expense of losing all their data in the process. This is an easily avoidable circumstance!
Contact us today
As you can see, there are quite a few reasons to back up your Microsoft 365 data! So, the question is, why wait?! Contact PCnet today to find out more about how they can help you with data protection and backups! For more great content, please check out the other blogs on our site!
You can also find a great book from Veeam Office 365 backups for dummies – at o365_backup_for_dummies_veeam_software_special_edition (1) to explore the topic further!