Although migrating to Office 365 can provide users with the benefits of increased end-user productivity, reduced costs and diminished maintenance of on-site hardware, many users are led into the false belief that this also includes the security of their data. In reality, Microsoft makes it clear that data residing within Office 365 is solely owned by the customer themselves, and therefore claim no responsibility for the protection of such data.

It’s widely accepted that on-premise data, such as company file servers, requires backup for adequate protection – and Office 365 data deserves the same level of security.

 

 

Data Loss within Office 365

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It’s easy to believe that backup is only necessary in the cases of successful cyber-attacks and rare physical disasters, when in fact accidental deletion is the primary cause of data loss within Office 365 and other SaaS deployments.

According to a survey conducted by the Aberdeen Group in 2013, accidental and malicious data deletion by end users actually accounted for around 70% of all data loss within these environments. In addition to accidental deletion, application errors or processing mistakes can lead to data being lost or overwritten, and the threat of hackers is always prevalent with advanced attacks like ransomware which encrypts data, leaving it inaccessible.

Reasons for SaaS Data Loss graph

71% of data loss in SaaS environments is due to accidental or malicious deletion

 

Although Microsoft does offer some built-in features for data protection, these are noticeably limited and simply can’t compare to a full backup solution. With the recycle bin deleting items after 93 days, OneDrive and Sharepoint files only being retained for up to 14 days, and all employee data from Exchange Online and OneDrive being deleted 30 days after leaving the business, it’s clear that a more comprehensive and scalable solution is required to ensure data is protected at all times – not just temporarily.

When it comes to document versioning, Microsoft does offer a feature for OneDrive that retains a certain number of previous versions of an amended document, allowing end users to restore the file back to a previous edition, there is no accountability for unintentionally deleted data as all versions of a document are removed when the current version is deleted.

 

 

Top 4 Reasons to Backup Office 365

Keeping in mind the discussed limitations and false beliefs when it comes to Office 365’s built-in data protection, we’ve complied our top four reasons for why you need to invest in a third-party backup solution:

 

Accidental Deletion

Accidental DeletionWhile deleted data is temporarily retrievable from the recycle bin, this data will be automatically emptied after a certain period of time, at which point it is deleted permanently and can never be recovered.

 

 

Malicious Insiders

Malicious InsidersFor some businesses, the turnover of employees and contractors is ongoing – as is the access granted to these users for sensitive data and files – increasing the risk of malicious insiders and therefore insider attacks. With backup, although the initial risk of attack is not lessened, the repercussions of an attack are as, if there were to be an attack on SharePoint and/or OneDrive, this data could be recovered.

 

Hackers

HackerThe activity of hackers poses an increasing threat to organisations, with ransomware in particular displaying concerning growth in complexity, and attacks being recorded by the thousands every day. Office 365 data is certainly vulnerable to this kind of malicious infiltration, and without a backup in place you could be forced to pay extortionate fees to get your data back.

 

Programmatic Errors

Programmatic ErrorThe use of third-party apps along with Office 365 can sometimes entail sync malfunctions, configuration glitches and a variety of other programmatic errors. For example, a user installing an app on a connected mobile device could potentially wipe out a whole list of contacts or calendars. To avoid these errors causing data loss, back up is strongly suggested.  

 

 

Cloud-to-Cloud Backup

Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup provides comprehensive and scalable protection for your Office 365 data through regular and encrypted backups of emails, contacts, folders, schedules and tasks - as well as your OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, and Exchange Online.

Better yet, Cloud-to-Cloud Backup comes with unlimited cloud storage and retention, giving you complete peace-of-mind that all of your vital data will be protected and ready to recover in the case of a disaster.

Find out more about the solution here.