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Summary: The growth of SaaS apps like Office 365 is on the rise, driven by cost-effective solutions for businesses. However, the need for robust backup and recovery for Office 365 is paramount. This is due to human errors, limited data retention, compliance requirements, and the ever-present threat of hackers. Third-party backup tools like Kernel Office 365 Backup and Restore provide a safety net for data protection and recovery, making them essential for Office 365 users.

Small and mid-sized organizations are increasingly embracing new platforms, particularly advanced cloud solutions, to reduce costs and enhance collaborative work environments. This trend has fueled the rapid growth of SaaS applications like Office 365.

Recognizing the vital significance of safeguarding cloud data, the need for robust protection has never been more pronounced. It’s imperative to confront the inherent risks associated with cloud environments, especially in the context of Office 365. This article outlines compelling reasons for enhancing Office 365 backup and recovery strategies.

1- Human Mistakes

Human error stands as a leading contributor to significant data loss incidents. While Office 365 fosters an employer-friendly environment by allowing multiple users to access and edit documents in real-time on various devices, this collaborative approach increases the risk of inadvertent data deletion. Unfortunately, Office 365 often falls short in shielding organizations from data loss resulting from human mistakes.

2- Short Retention & Data Restoration Periods

Office 365 does implement measures to safeguard deleted files, emails, or entire mailboxes; however, the data’s retention depends on the policies assigned to it, potentially rendering some data less accessible. Moreover, data may become unrecoverable once the retention period expires.

The Office 365 data retention policies exhibit limitations concerning deleted items, recoverable items, and legal holds. End-users must configure multiple policies and settings, often conflicting with corporate retention policies, hampering compliance efforts. Backup solutions using snapshots can burden administrators with the task of restoring and managing numerous snapshots.

3- Compliance Requirements

In today’s landscape, organizations must align with both IT governance and regulatory mandates. Achieving this is more straightforward in on-premises deployments. However, not all SaaS applications prioritize data protection in accordance with compliance requirements and industry standards. Therefore, it is imperative for small and medium-sized organizations to diligently ensure seamless access to cloud data while meeting essential compliance requirements.

4- Hacker Peril

Malicious attacks can have a significant and disruptive impact on cloud platform data, posing substantial challenges for organizations striving to maintain compliance. Unauthorized access and cyberattacks by hackers remain a paramount concern, as they can lead to extensive data tampering and permanent data loss. When such events occur, recovery options and methods for items or mailboxes become severely constrained.

According to a 2017 Gartner Research Report, “Infrastructure and operations leaders using or evaluating Office 365 are considering investments in third-party tools for accelerated recovery options.” One such third-party solution is Kernel Office 365 Backup and Restore. This tool plays a crucial role in backing up and recovering deleted or corrupted data, ensuring that data lost due to security breaches or malware attacks is not permanently gone. It allows for the saving of Exchange/Office 365 mailboxes as PST files without requiring Outlook and facilitates the export of user/archive/shared mailboxes and public folders to PST files. Additionally, it includes features like mailbox filtering by date and item type and the ability to restore healthy PST files to Office 365 mailboxes.

Conclusion

While Microsoft’s Office 365 is a dependable cloud platform, it’s not immune to data loss and inaccessibility issues. Consequently, many Office 365 users seek data backup solutions. Additionally, compliance demands and the limitations of Office 365’s data recovery features drive users towards adopting third-party backup tools.