Why do you still need to backup Microsoft 365?
Every organization needs to keep data protected and accessible for its users. However, as adoption of Microsoft M365 continues to rise, many are still unaware of the risky protection and recovery gaps within Microsoft M365 when malicious attacks occur or point-in-time recovery is required. Leveraging a third-party archiving tool can automate and simplify the process of recovering your email and other Exchange data. According to Gartner, “Infrastructure and operations leaders using or evaluating Microsoft M365 should consider investing in third-party tools for faster, more-flexible recovery options, as well as reputation damage control after a malicious attack.”
Where does M365 fall short? While it does provide adequate infrastructure recovery for the entire email system, it doesn't offer the same capabilities at the user level. End users expect easy-to-use, self-service recovery and search of email, contacts and calendars without having to involve IT or complete complex training. To achieve advanced protection and recovery, an integrated end-user solution that is intuitive and in sync with Microsoft 365 mailbox changes is required to reduce risk and boost productivity.
Moreover, malicious attacks through email continue to be the primary entry point and challenge for organizations and the effect can greatly impact the integrity of Microsoft 365 email. When malicious attacks occur, or built-in Microsoft 365 policy expirations are not enough to provide adequate end user recovery, customers need an additional layer of protection for resiliency. Limitations with Microsoft 365 deleted items, recoverable items and legal holds make it cumbersome to manage and unreliable in e•discovery or compliance scenarios. Additionally, Office 365 customers are required to configure multiple policies and settings that may conflict with corporate retention policies, further impacting compliance. The following Gartner research provides background on the adoption of Microsoft 365, limitations on data protection and recovery as well as guidance on how to use third-party solutions in your cloud strategy.
Microsoft M365 offers robust disaster recovery, but limited native backup and recovery. Business leaders using or evaluating M365 should consider investing in third-party backup and recovery tools for faster, more-flexible recovery options, as well as reputation damage control after a malicious attack.
Key Findings
- M365’s native recycle bins and version histories are not true backups, and they don’t allow internal IT organizations to control backup and recovery; this presents potential security risks
and slows recovery processes. - M365 Exchange Online offers robust high availability, but lacks many options for customer-controlled backup and disaster recovery solutions.
- Third-party M365 backup tools provide recovery from internal threats and external attacks, as well as flexible and expanded policies including different backup retention periods.
- Some third-party email archiving tools provide a DR alternative for M365 Exchange Online, In addition to email governance and compliance capabilities.
