When it comes to productivity, there are several apps and cloud-based solutions that you can make use of to ensure that you can get everything done while you are on the go. One of the most popular ones among these is Microsoft 365. Earlier known as Office 365, it is known as the ‘productivity cloud’ and its prime purpose is to provide you with the tools and resources you need to run your business or fuel your passion.
Microsoft 365 has more than 130 million commercial users as of today, and there are several benefits of using it. and this means that data security is a concern for the people who rely on it. Therefore, it is high time to consider backing up your M365 suite through a third party service to avoid data loss or theft.
Reasons Why You Should Backup Microsoft 365
When it comes to backing up your data, you might think about making a copy of it and storing it somewhere on your computer. But this is ineffective in the scenario that your hard drive gets fried and all of your data is lost. The first rule of data backup is that it should be placed on separate media, so that if one is lost or damaged, it doesn’t affect the second copy.
The same applies to cloud-based solutions like Microsoft 365. Even Microsoft asks you to be careful and back up your data through third-party services and apps, as can be seen in the M365 service agreement. Thus, it is imperative for managers and IT admins to keep a backup of the data on separate locations, so that it can be easily accessed and restored when needed. Let’s have a look at why you should start using a third party service to back up M365.
Ease of Access
When it comes to cloud-based solutions like Microsoft 365, you have the ability to collaborate with your team members and employees on a single project or file, even when you are sitting in different corners of the world. For instance, you can make use of Microsoft SharePoint to load a document that everyone can edit in real time.
However, this ease of access is also what makes Microsoft 365 vulnerable, since the more you give people access to modify sensitive documents, the riskier it can get to protect those files. Therefore, it is imperative to have your data backed up through a third party service, so that even if a file is deleted accidentally or on purpose, you won’t have to rely on Microsoft to restore it.
Microsoft doesn’t fully Protect Data
Another reason why you would need to choose a third-party service to backup your Microsoft 365 data is because Microsoft only protects your data up to a certain extent. Of course, the company secures its physical data centers well and also protects them from on-site or remote intrusions. However, when it comes to protecting customer data from human error or site-level recovery, it won’t help you as much.
Also, Microsoft doesn’t back up your data, as much as you like to think that it does. It only provides basic protection to mitigate a few risks that can harm your data. Recently, Microsoft has also introduced versioning in M365, which means that it keeps saving versions of your document while you work on it. This can protect you against most user errors, it won’t help you find the right version from among 500 different versions, which can be a hassle.
Plus, malware can also affect your file and change it multiple times, so your original file won’t be saved in any of the versions that you have. This would cause significant data loss and is a major reason why you should consider backing up your data. More so, since there are hundreds of versions created for a single document, it takes up a lot of space on your drive and most admins might be tempted to turn it off for this reason.
Protect Your M365 Data with VAST
As you can see, protecting your M365 data is in your own hands and when you need a third party to help you with it, choose VAST. We are experts in data protection for cloud services, which means that we well-equipped to deal with any issues that arise. Simply get in touch with us today and let us handle your Microsoft 365 backup, before it is too late.
