Backup-in-MS365

Why a good backup and data management policy is essential when working in MS365

Microsoft 365 (MS365) is the standard for collaboration in the Cloud. With tools such as SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams, your (project) organization can share, edit and store documents without worrying about local storage. Your data is always and everywhere available. In practice, we find that many smaller companies assume that their data is also automatically safe with Microsoft. But this is only partially true. Because as a user, you are still responsible for the protection and recovery of your own data. How does that work? We explain it to you in this article.

The Shared Responsibility Model

First of all, it is good to know that Microsoft works according to the so-called Shared Responsibility Model. In short, this means that Microsoft makes sure their infrastructure is running but that the protection of your data in it is your own responsibility.

And that's important to know. Because did you know that more than 600 million identity attacks occur every day, more than 99% of which are password-related.* On the dark web, prices for stolen passwords drop significantly. This often makes it easier to log in than to break in, thus raising the threat level considerably. So it is extremely important to know what is regulated by Microsoft and what you yourself still have to do to keep your data as safe as possible and recover it quickly when necessary. We would like to explain it a little further.

*Source: the Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2024

What does Microsoft do?

Microsoft ensures especially ensures that its Cloud environment remains secure, available and operational. You can think about the security of the physical data centers, uptime guarantees, protection against hardware failures and natural disasters and basic protection against cyber threats.

What is your responsibility?

So you as an organization are responsible for protecting and managing your own data within MS365. Think about

  • preventing accidental data loss due to human error, malware or accidentally deleted files
  • Setting retention and security policies for documents, emails and Teams conversations
  • Creating and managing backups for long-term data security
  • protection against internal threats, e.g., employees accidentally or intentionally deleting data

 

So cloud storage is not the same as backup

On spite of the fact that je in MS365 with version control, previous versions of files can retrieve, in SharePoint libraries libraries and Microsoft has certain retention periods has built in for retention and deletion of files, these are not full back-ups. Ea separate copy of your data stored externally, ensures that your data recoverable even after these deadlines. It offers you protection against human error, cyber attacks and accidentally deleted files. Your data is available for the longer term and can make the difference between recovery and permanent data loss.

 

Essential: make sure you have a good backup strategy

A good backup strategy is something you make together with your IT partner. In any case, we advise you to look closely at what you backup, how often, where you store the backups and whether you can actually restore the backups. Not all data needs to be stored; look especially at what data is essential for your business continuity. What critical data needs to be backed up daily and what can be backed up weekly or even monthly.

A remote location for storing your backups is crucial. You can choose an external Cloud environment or a physical on-premises server. Above all, also test whether you can restore the backups you made so you don't get any surprises.

 

In addition, set up smart data management policies

In addition to a good backup strategy, a good data management policy is important. This way you limit risks, deal efficiently with data and storage space, and avoid high storage costs and unnecessary energy consumption. A few tips:

  • Ensure clear storage structures - A well-organized document management system prevents employees from storing the same files over and over again.
  • Clean up your data periodically - Avoid letting old versions and unused files sit unnecessarily for years.
  • Provide a retention policy - Establish how long certain types of data are retainedven and when they will beand deleted or archived. This is especially important when you organization must meet certain compliance requirements. Through retention rules in a.o. MS365 properly you prevent old sensitive data from remaining available unnecessarily long and you reduce risks of a.o. data leaks.
  • Use smart automation - Power Automate and AI tools within MS365 can help automatically archive or delete irrelevant or obsolete data.
  • Limit the maximum number of versions - In Microsoft 365, you can set how many versions of a file are stored. By optimizing this, you avoid unnecessary storage of dozens of old versions.

 

The responsibility lies with yourself

All in all Microsoft 365 so a wonderful tool with powerful storage capabilities and extensive collaboration capabilities, but it is not a full-fledged backup service. De ultimate responsibility for data retention and recovery still lies with the user himself. A good backup policy is therefore essential. This prevents data loss and ensures that your organization always has access to crucial information. At the same time, a good data management policy is important to minimize risks as much as possible. Slim with data handling of data additionally waste of storage and energy and thus reduces costs.

 

Need help?

Want to learn more about how to set up an effective data management policy? Need help setting up a document system or smart automation? Contact Ditio and find out how we can help.