Most of us don’t think about backing up our Email, OneDrive files or SharePoint data residing in Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud. Microsoft takes care of that… or do they?
In Part One of this blog (posted on November 9th, 2016), we dealt with Exchange data in the Office 365 cloud. In Part Two, we’ll talk about OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Data.
Both OneDrive and SharePoint utilize the recycle bin approach, similar to Exchange Online and its Deleted Items and Recoverable Items folder features. To restore a deleted file within either
application, one must access the Recycle Bin or 2nd Stage Recycle Bin. Each Recycle Bin can allow for single or multiple files to be restored. Restoring a file from either Recycle Bin will return the file back to its original location within OneDrive for Business. If the file does not exist in either Recycle Bin, consider it lost.
Microsoft does perform backups of the entire site collections for SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business every twelve hours and these backups are stored for fourteen days. Having said this, neither you as the customer nor your IT support people have any control over these backups nor over restoring this data. If a restore of your entire OneDrive and/or SharePoint data was necessary, it could only be initiated by contacting Microsoft’s Office 365 support. Don’t expect this to be a quick process. There are no timeline guarantees, and expect data restore fees from Microsoft and possibly from your IT support company. Also, keep in mind that such a restore, if even possible, will overwrite any existing data so any changes will be lost.
Besides data being deleted on purpose or inadvertently, let’s not forget about the possibility that your cloud data could be locked or otherwise affected by malware such as a Ransomware attack. Experts suggest that cyberthieves are definitely working on accessing data in the cloud through Phishing attempts. If you fall prey to such a Phishing attempt and your files are encrypted or locked, you may be left with no choice but to pay the ransom, in the absence of a separate backup of your data.
Office 365 has been designed in such a way that you as an organization do not need to worry about core infrastructure. You never need to worry about patching or backing up and monitoring the
core infrastructure. Microsoft ensures that they are not the cause for any data loss, but have also limited the administration and end user backup and restore capabilities.
The Solution
To ensure the security of your cloud data, it is imperative to have a secure and reliable third-party backup and restore solution. BSC Solutions Group is now offering an affordable solution which backs up your email, calendar, contacts, OneDrive for Business files & folders plus SharePoint. And… there’s no limit on retention times.
Contact BSC today for more details.
