Why it is Critical to Back Up Office 365

Office 365 can be a powerful and productive collaborative tool- which is why it absolutely critical to back it up!

A few weeks ago The IT Company blog series talked to readers about how Office 365 is replacing traditional file servers. Because of the lack of growth file servers and the methods of accessing them easily have had over the last few decades, the flaws that file servers possess remain the same- crashes and downtime, inefficiency, and difficulty to access on the go. 

The IT Company is continually moving our customers over to collaborative and productive systems, such as Office 365. Organizations who have made the switched are seeing an increase of productivity, consequently making them happier! Customer happiness is The IT Company’s number one goal so we love to hear the positive effects of a product we are implementing to improve our customers.

Being able to access your stuff wherever, whenever, and however you want- being able to communicate and collaborate around the files you need- and keeping up with revisions of file changes, can bring the desired productivity and happiness of Office 365. But at The IT Company, we want your productivity to be consistent. The IT Company wants to equip you and give you as much knowledge as possible, to prevent things from interfering with your success as a business. We have said it once, we will say it again- The IT Company spends a lot of time thinking about how we can minimize the risks out there for customers and improve the IT support we provide. Implementing Office 365 alone is not going to give you the long-term happiness we aim for. It must not only be implemented into your organization, but consistently backed-up. 

Why is it critical to back up Office 365?

• Accidentally deleted emails: When there is an email that is deleted unintentionally and you are unable to find it, it can be frustrating. Sometimes it is deleted before you even realize it is gone. Deleted items are typically stored in the trash and after a period of time those items may be permanently deleted or unrecoverable without a backup. With Office 365 applications, items are stored in the cloud. If a recent back up has been run, the likelihood of being able restore the email is much higher. There are also times where an intentionally deleted email is needed. The Office 365 back up to the cloud can assist in the access to these situations as well.
• Legal/Compliance reasons: More and more companies are requiring the ability to restore or recover any user within the company’s data, at any given time, for any given time frame, in the event of an audit or legal issue. Again, by backing Office 365, you are able to restore and recover much easier and with more of a guarantee that you will be able to.
• Microsoft Policies: Microsoft cannot guarantee the ability to restore lost data. In the event of an unexpected occurrence, having backed up your Office 365 applications, it provides an extra reassurance that these files will be able to be restored.
• Restore Data: If a computer gets attacked and infected by a malicious attacker, data on the device is unrecoverable without a backup. No one plans for a malicious attack, so by backing up your data on Office 365 frequently and often, and it can guarantee that those files will be able to be restored when something unexpected happens.
• Restoring Files From OneDrive/Sharepoint: Just as it is useful to be able to restore lost emails and data, specifically with Office 365, the files saved in OneDrive and Sharepoint can be extremely important. Do not risk losing them by making this mistake of not backing up your files.

Office 365 is an extremely beneficial tool that can lead to great increase in productivity within a company. But just as with anything in the technology world, there will always be unexpected events that may occur. By backing up the applications of Office 365, it reduces the likelihood of permanently losing data.

As we shared previously, Office 365 includes:

• Traditional Office, which is typically Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• SharePoint for Web File Sharing for Groups, Companies and Teams.
• OneDrive for individual file storage and file sharing services.
• Microsoft Teams for Team Collaboration and Sharing.

Each of these applications can make a huge difference in your company. We at The IT Company are confident that you will see improvement in your company’s productivity from implementing Office 365. But don’t let your happiness stop there. Find happiness in the reassurance of backing up your Office 365, so that when something frustrating may happen, your back ups can eliminate some of that frustration.

The IT Company can’t say it enough back up, back up, and back up again. Your data is important to you, and you’re important to us, which is why we feel it so important to encourage you to back up your Office 365!