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Exchange Online Administrators need to take some proactive measures to protect the whole data in the account. Generally, the primary focus of data protection is on Emails and Contacts as they are essential for the business. But the additional information like Calendar, notes, archive, tasks, etc., should also be protected.
The retention policies help manage the lifecycle of all mailbox items. They contain a ‘retention tag,’ which specifies whether it should be moved to the archive and when it should be deleted.
Apart from mailbox items, several default folders can take advantage of retention tags for protection.
Retention Policy can be applied to the following default folders, including Calendar and Tasks.
Default Folders | Usage |
---|---|
Calendar | A calendar folder can save important dates, events, meetings, and appointments. |
Tasks | When a user creates a task to complete in the future, its description is saved in the Task folder. It is also savable using retention tags. |
Clutter | Clutter folder can save the lesser essential emails and make the Inbox decluttered. |
Deleted Items | When emails are deleted from the Inbox, then they reach to Deleted Items default folder. It will support retention tags also. |
Drafts | Drafts folder saves the messages that the user does not send to other accounts. |
Journal | This folder saves the user’s actions and is placed in the timeline view in Outlook. |
Notes | Notes created in Outlook are saved in this folder. They can be protected using retention tags. |
Outbox | Outbox contains the outgoing messages temporarily until they are entirely processed in the Hub Transport Server. |
Sync Issues | Synchronization logs are present in the Sync Issues folder. |
Archive | The archive folder is the destination for saving older messages present in Outlook. The retention policies can keep archive mailbox messages. But it will work only in Exchange Online. |
When you have created the retention policy, wait for at least 24 hours to make them functional in the entire Office 365 account.
The retention policy protects the selected folder from deletion. There is some necessary information that you need to keep in mind before creating the retention tags-
Office 365 follows a shared tenancy model where both user and platform are responsible for data security. It follows a Software as a Service (SaaS) model where Microsoft and others manage some components.
Office 365 manages the physical infrastructure and maintains mailboxes’ availability, but the security is dependent on the users. So, it would help if you understood that retentions are not backups. Backups take an offline copy while retention saves the data from deletion. If you have not enabled the retention policies in data, then it is unsafe from the abrupt deletion.
Taking a backup of the Office 365 mailbox reduces the chances of data loss and reduces the need for having a robust retention policy. So, you should take a backup of the Office 365 mailbox using either the manual or professional Export Office 365 to PST software. The manual process saves only the emails in PST format. But, professional software can save entire mailbox like emails, Contacts, Calendars, notes, and other items.
Kernel Office 365 Backup software is designed to take the backup of unlimited mailboxes in PST file format. The Exchange Administrator can save the whole account and keep it safe from many threats.
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