Read time 4 minutes

Summary: Office 365 boasts robust security features, including Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) with real-time reports, policy enforcement, and automated threat investigation. However, a shared-responsibility model, inactive account data loss, varied retention policies, and strict regulatory compliance necessitate considering Office 365 backup solutions. Kernel Office 365 Backup & Restore offers comprehensive backup capabilities for all Office 365 mailbox types, while Kernel Migrator for SharePoint addresses SharePoint and OneDrive data backup needs.

Office 365 offers comprehensive security features to protect your office 365 data. Its Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) includes multiple safeguards against external threats, such as concealed spyware or malware in emails, malicious URLs, and downloadable tools, all working together to protect your Office 365 data.

Reports: Several real-time reports to give you the results of ATP policies.

Threat Protection Policies: The policies define and set the appropriate security level to protect your organization’s data.

Threat investigation and response capabilities: The usage of cutting-edge tools to check, understand, remove, and report the threats.

Automated investigation and response capabilities: it automates the investigations of the threats and saves time in handling the threats.

While Office 365 boasts a considerable array of security features for safeguarding your business data, it might seem tempting to forgo backup. However, several compelling reasons urge you to reconsider and prioritize taking an Office 365 backup.

Shared-responsibility model

Microsoft employs a shared-responsibility model to secure Office 365 accounts. In this model, both the user and Microsoft bear responsibility for various aspects. Microsoft manages hardware, network, virtualization, applications, and the Operating System, while the user is tasked with controlling, accessing, and managing data. This shared-responsibility model places accountability for user data squarely on the user’s shoulders. Consequently, if data loss occurs, the user is held responsible.

The inactive accounts require repayment

Maintaining an active status is crucial for accessing mailbox data. If an employee leaves the organization, and their account becomes inactive, others won’t be able to access their mailbox data. This situation can lead to the loss of important files. To prevent potential data loss, it’s essential to back up the account before it becomes inactive to ensure data preservation.

Microsoft’s Backup and Retention Policies

Office 365 retention policies vary across applications. For instance, SharePoint and OneDrive retain deleted objects for 93 days. However, the restoration process can be time-consuming and complex, making retention policies unreliable for ensuring effective recovery in case of data corruption or deletion.

Exchange Online employs a distinct retention policy approach. When a user deletes data, it initially moves to the Deleted Items Folder. If a user performs a hard delete, the data proceeds to the ‘Recoverable items’ folder with a retention period of 14 days, extendable to 30 days. This highlights various challenges associated with the backup and retention policies of the Office 365.

  • Each Service and application has a different backup and retention policy for the deleted items. And Microsoft Teams does not have any kind of safeguard policy to save its data.
  • Microsoft may change the retention policy and so you will have to update your information to adjust to the policies.
  • The backup and retention policies only work in a limited manner and cannot remove the need for any professional backup application.

Strict regulatory compliances

If your organization operates in regulated sectors like law, finance, or healthcare, compliance with standards such as HIPPA and GDPR requires you to retain emails, contacts, attachments, and various types of data for extended periods. Given that Office 365 backup policies provide limited coverage, it becomes imperative to leverage professional backup software to meet these stringent data retention requirements.

Once you’ve gained a thorough understanding of the limitations of backup and retention policies, it’s crucial to explore the best tools available for backing up your Office 365 account effectively.

Kernel Office 365 Backup & Restore is a versatile software solution capable of backing up any Office 365 mailbox, regardless of the plan. It stores data in PST file format, preserving the original hierarchy. Additionally, Kernel Migrator for SharePoint enables seamless backup of SharePoint (both on-premises and online) and OneDrive for Business data to your local system.

Kernel Office 365 Backup