Microsoft 365 Disaster Recovery Plan: Do We Need A Separate Office 365 Backup?

Read time: 8 minutes

Microsoft 365 has turned into a synonym for collaboration and productivity. It is a collection of applications that focuses on bringing out the best work experience for organizations and their employees. It has definitely been on top of all the cloud platforms. But providing services to manage all the data and taking backup of that same data is completely unrelated. Many users have a preconceived notion that backup is an already included function of Office 365. Despite all this, let us dive into the reality of the situation and discuss if it is included or not in the Disaster Recovery Plan of Microsoft.

What is Disaster Recovery Management?

To begin the discussion, you need to understand what exactly we are referring to as Disaster Recovery Management. Any organization, be it small or a multi-national company, generates loads of data daily that can be confidential. This data is also prone to corruption in case of severe errors, including virus attacks, human errors, hacking, and hardware failure. This can eventually turn into the loss of all the important data. Hence, it is a requirement to have a proper and well-defined plan to recover all this data from any disaster or loss.

Finally, coming back to the question of the hour, we need to clear all the misconceptions around backup. We need to understand the relation between Microsoft data recovery and Office 365 backup. Microsoft does not back up the data of Office 365 in case of any kind of data loss. It has made it clear in their agreement that if any disruptions and outrages occur, they are not supposed to be liable for the loss. In addition, they have also mentioned that users would not be able to recover any deleted emails from the Office 365 mailboxes.

Microsoft does not provide a data backup, but it gives users a chance to retain the deleted items by allowing emails to be recovered within 30 days of deletion. In addition to this, administrators can increase the duration of this retention period. Any email which has been permanently deleted from the Deleted Items folder cannot be retained under any condition.

You can use these steps to recover your email data-

1. Open Outlook and click on the Deleted Items folder.
2. You can choose to arrange the data according to Date, Subject, Size, From, Important, Newest, and Oldest. This will be useful in searching for the right email.
3. Select that email and click on Move To present in the top row. You can decide the folder in which you want to move the email.

It has been emphasized again about the need to take backup of all your essential data at regular intervals. These are the prime reasons behind it-

• Accidental removal of data

This is one of the most common causes. When you delete a user (by mistake or intention), it is replicated throughout the network. This could also remove some emails which might contain important data.

• Viruses and other threats

Be it any technology, virus and other threats always tend to find a loophole and negatively impact your system and documents. This can most definitely make your data lost forever.

• Loss of hardware devices

Since all the users work and keep their data on their systems, it surely turns into a valuable possession. But there are also chances of the laptop getting lost. Even in that case, there is no resort to retrieve the lost data.

• Possibilities of downtime

IT downtimes are common and can leave a negative impact by reducing productivity. This also increases the probability of data loss. A backup makes sure that your organization bounces back with more productivity.

• Support for the recovery plan

Every organization has a plan to recover from any troublesome situation. That’s when backed up data acts as a backup to lift up from those situations with much ease.

• Precaution against data loss

Every individual is likely to make a mistake while working. But if that mistake is fatal, then recovery of documents can get tricky. This will allow you to make mistakes without repeating the work.

• The retention period is over

The retention policies of Microsoft can get a bit confusing. It is an ideal situation to not be dependent on these.

• Sudden shutdowns and outages

Power cuts and sudden shutdowns are unavoidable. They also interrupt the ongoing work resulting in the loss of data.

One can only trust a secure tool when dealing with such important and confidential data. Kernel Office 365 Backup software is a professionally curated utility that takes backup of all user/archive/ shared mailboxes and public folders. It ensures data accuracy and safety is maintained throughout.

These steps will guide you about the process-

1. Download the Kernel Office 365 Backup software on your system. Install the tool and launch it.
2. Click on Add to begin the process.
3. Choose an appropriate method to log in and click on OK. One involves username and password, while the other needs client id and secret.
4. Enter all the details and choose if you want to back up a single or multiple mailboxes. Click on Add.
5. The account will be displayed on the tool. Click on Set Filterand Migrate .
6. Choose which mailbox you want to proceed with and click on Migrate.
7. You can decide to apply filters to narrow down the items. Select I am OK, Start Migration.
8. Now, select the format of the output file and click on OK.
9. Choose the saving destination of the file.
10. One by one, it will start backing up all the items.

Conclusion

An organization that uses Office 365 must be ready with a recovery plan to overcome the worst data loss circumstances. Microsoft does not backup Exchange online mailboxes to PST or rather any other format. But it does provide all its users a 30-day retention period to recover deleted emails. There are many reasons supporting the idea of backing up all your important Office 365 content. A professional tool provides the best way to backup Office 365 data since they keep the security of the data a top priority.