When it comes to critical data, it is essential to ensure that you have a reliable backup plan in place. This is true whether you are an individual user, a small business owner, or a large enterprise. While it’s vital to have a backup plan, it is also essential to understand where the responsibility might lie for the entire backup process.

Why is it Essential to Back up Your Email Data for Microsoft 365?

Many Microsoft users mistakenly think Microsoft backs up their email data. Being able to retrieve an accidentally deleted email for a short period of time is not the same thing as data backup. Microsoft is responsible for their global infrastructure i.e., uptime and redundancy of the Microsoft 365 Cloud, but they are not liable for backup of your individual/company data, access to that data or the retention of that data. However, they highly recommend the use of a third-party backup solution so you always have access and control of your data should the worst happen. There’s a number of reasons for why it is vital to routinely backup your email data, for instance:

• Protection Against Accidental Deletion: Microsoft 365 does provide some protection against data loss (recycle bin), but it cannot always prevent users from accidentally deleting important emails. Once you delete or recycle bin the data is lost.
• Cybersecurity Threats: Cybersecurity threats such as phishing attacks, ransomware, and malware can lead to data loss or corruption. Being able to restore your data from a clean and uninfected back up is critical to the effective running of your business.
• Compliance and Legal Requirements: Many organisations are required by law or industry regulations to keep copies of all email communications for a certain period of time. An effective backup solution is an easy way to keep in line with specific requirements and retrieve emails without delay.
• Disaster Recovery: Microsoft 365 has a 99.9% uptime guarantee on their infrastructure, but this does not protect against major disasters or system outages. With the help of a suitable backup solution, you can ensure that your email data is protected and can be restored swiftly in case of a disaster.

How Can the Loss of Email Data Impact Your Business?

• Loss of Valuable Information: Emails often contain important information such as contacts, attachments, and conversations. The loss of such information can be detrimental to your business, career, and even personal life.
• Disruption to Workflow: With emails being a constant part of day-to-day workflow, losing them can lead to serious disturbances and delays in completing tasks and projects.
• Missed Deadlines: If your employees rely on their work email to track deadlines and tasks, then email data loss can create significant setbacks in business operations.
• Legal and Compliance Issues: If you and your business are required to maintain email records for legal or compliance reasons and you lose most of your email data, you could possibly face some regulatory consequences.
• Time and Effort to Recover: With no email backup solution in place, recovering lost data can be time-consuming and cause immeasurable delays for your business.

Why You Should Start Backing Up Your Email Data with Microsoft 365

A practical method to enforce is to form a backup plan for you and your personnel to strictly adhere to on a routine basis. As part of that routine, it is important that critical data is regularly and automatically backed up to avoid disruption to your business.

Business owners can have peace of mind knowing that they have access and control over critical data.  Learn more about investing in a Microsoft 365 email backup solution for your business by reaching our team of professionals at 1300 638 734 or sending through an enquiry to get started today!