How MSPs can benefit from an Office 365 backup tool?

Read time 6 minutes

Professional Managed Service Provider(s) alleviate the client’s need for IT infrastructure and provide them the best software and solutions to work economically. Nowadays, businesses are dependent on the cloud technologies like Office 365 a lot. It provides Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Skype for Business, and multiple applications that each business requires on a daily basis. It is tough for the MSP provider to manage multiple Office 365 accounts for different businesses.

If you are a Managed Service Provider and handles the IT resources of organizations, then you must be aware that now organizations are moving towards cloud at rapid speed. Managing the data on the cloud requires specialized expertise. So, it is quite challenging for MSPs to meet the requirements of a cloud platform.

When the data on the cloud increases in size or gets old, then organizations may think of taking backup Office 365 for the mailbox data to place it at a secure place. In that case, you as their MSP will have to find a reliable mechanism to back up the client’s data. In such a situation, there are various challenges for a Managed Service Provider regarding cloud technology, and some of them are here –

1. Skill shortage

   Generally, the MSPs provide their service to smaller or medium-sized organizations. They will not be having such amount of financial resource to hire skillful technicians or subscribe services. When we talk about cloud computing, then there is ample shortage of skilled technicians. So, MSPs has to provide cloud services that are affordable to them.

2. Migration of data to the cloud

   While migrating the onsite IT resources to the cloud, there are many challenges which can affect the process or even corrupt the data. So, the MSP must get ready to face any challenges while dealing with the data on the cloud.

3. Managing multiple services

   While using the cloud to cloud backup platform, the businesses must have different requirements based on their size, industry, clientele, and the financial condition. Also, they may require multiple services like emailing, content management, etc. So, MSPs need to provide multiple services so that the clients do not have to go to another service provider for a different service.

4. Understanding the client’s needs

   Each firm is different from another even if they work in the same domain, so the MSP must create multiple plans for each business client and fulfill their needs. If they are interested in putting their data on the cloud and manage it, then the MSP needs to create a migration plan, maintain their data, provide appropriate service, and restore it when required.

5. Choose the best tool or service

   While solving an issue, the MSP should take care of using professional tools to fulfill the requirement of the client’s business. These tools may be freely available from reliable sources or professional developers. Every MSP should have an adequate number of tools available to complete any desired action at any stage according to the business requirement.

If you are managing the Office 365 platform of an organization, and there is a constant flow of email messages, contacts, notes, attachments, and reports. While taking a backup of such data, you need to proceed with many precautions. Although there are some manual methods which you can apply to take a backup, they do not provide any guarantee about the security of data, and a single misstep can either delete or corrupt the data.

To save yourself from such difficulties, you can use Export Office 365 to PST Tool from Kernel which is a special tool designed to take the backup of Office 365 mailboxes in PST format. This PST file is readily usable in the Outlook application. Here is the complete procedure of taking a backup with KernelApps backup tool –

1. Run the software and click the Add button to add the Office 365 mailbox.
2. Input the Office 365 credentials and click Add.
   
3. After adding the mailbox, click Set Filter and Migrate button to move ahead.
4. Select among Mailbox, Archive Mailbox, and Public folder which you want to take a backup.
5. In the Filter Selection window, choose the filtering options as required:
   • Select the folders to migrate.
   • Provide a date range to filter items.
   • Select the item types that are to be migrated.
   • Exclude Deleted item folder from migration if needed.
   • Exclude empty folders from the migration if needed.
   • Provide a folder name (to save the data with hierarchy inside a mailbox folder).
   • Select an upper time limit for migration (the migration will be rejected if it exceeds this time limit).
   • Check the box to skip the already exported data.

   Finally click I am OK, Start Migration.
   

6. Select PST as the saving option and click OK.
   
7. Browse and select the destination for the PST file.
   
8. As soon as the migration is complete, the tool will provide a successful message. Click OK.
   
9. You can save the migration report by clicking the Save report to CSV option.
   

Conclusion

When you use the Export Office 365 to PST tool, you will feel ease while backing up Office 365 mailboxes. The tool hides all the complexities and brings you only the required information to complete the procedure. It is a highly beneficial tool for all MSPs who are managing the Office 365 assets of their clients. They can use it to safely backup their client’s data at a secure location.