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<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n1. Data protection is your responsibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You may think that your Office 365 data is entirely safe because it\u2019s located in the cloud. It\u2019s true that your data is relatively safe in the cloud. However, it\u2019s not as safe as you might want to believe. The truth is that the cloud data is vulnerable to cyber threats and intentional and accidental deletions. You may ask the question: Does Microsoft guarantee the security of my data in the cloud? Microsoft approaches the data safety question by presenting the Shared Responsibility Model. Based on this model, Microsoft is responsible for providing virtualized services to its customers worldwide. In addition, Microsoft offers limited native data protection features. However, Microsoft doesn\u2019t take responsibility for your data across the platform and devices. On the contrary, it’s up to you to keep your data safe in the cloud. Therefore, your task is to find efficient third-party backup software to protect your data around the clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Errors in Microsoft\u2019s retention policies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Office 365 has retention policies that prevent data from being permanently deleted. You can recover emails, messages, files, and objects from the recycle bin within a specified timeframe. Retention policies enable you to preserve or delete your content. You can set up schedules and delete specified objects automatically. You can also retain items for an indicated period of time or indefinitely. But, guess what? Setting up retention policies is a tedious task. Administrators spend a lot of time on creating smart retention policy algorithms. In addition, once your policies are set, you may need to update them consistently to achieve efficient results. The retention policy setup can take a long time and requires extra attention from the administrator. Because of this, it\u2019s prone to human error. Mistakes or retention policy gaps are often the reason for permanent data loss. If an item gets deleted, and it\u2019s passed the retention policy period, you can only recover it from a third-party backup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Litigation hold shortcomings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
From time to time, management can ask you to preserve a document or file for a legal case. In other words, you can place certain information on litigation hold. It can be a Word document, an email, or a message in Skype that needs to be on hold. Backing up the litigation hold data can address human error or deletion issues. For example, you can accidentally delete a litigation hold or replace it with the wrong information. You can also unintentionally put the wrong content on hold. But sometimes you don\u2019t even know that certain content could end up on litigation hold. Therefore, you need to run continuous backups of your Office 365 data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. A mailbox archive cannot serve as a backup<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
An archive is an additional storage space. You can move your old email messages to the archive to clear your mailbox. Emails older than two years are shifted to the archive by default. Keep in mind that archive is not a substitute for a backup. Similar to your mailbox, your archive data may be deleted or attacked by a hacker. On the other hand, third-party backups offer you a secure solution for managing and storing your data. A 3-2-1 approach enables you to keep your backups in a safe location, inaccessible to unauthorized users or hackers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Compliance with laws and regulations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As a business, you may need to store data to be compliant with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), or General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You can use Office 365 retention policy to maintain your data. But, if you go over the limit and retain too much data, you will be charged extra \u2014 your expenses could go through the roof! Backups, however, can help you preserve all your critical data continuously at an affordable price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Security vulnerabilities in the cloud<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Your data in the cloud is vulnerable to security threats. A disgruntled insider who has privileged access to your business accounts can delete your critical data. Ransomware is another huge threat that can compromise your Office 365 account. You can inadvertently activate ransomware via a phishing email. As a rule, ransomware attacks your physical machine first, and then it makes its way to the cloud. If your computer files are infected with ransomware, and they are synchronized with OneDrive, your OneDrive files will end up infected, as well. You can also grant direct access to your OneDrive account by giving access to a third-party application from your email, for example, a security app. Microsoft offers native data protection against ransomware; however, it\u2019s not always effective. Ransomware can permanently delete data from your physical machine and OneDrive. If you can\u2019t recover your data with Microsoft\u2019s native tools, backups are your last resort to get your data back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7. Possibility of point-in-time recovery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Office 365 allows you to have several versions of your document. However, those versions are part of a saved file. Therefore, if the document is deleted, all of the versions are deleted, as well. On the other hand, a third-party backup solution allows you to have multiple recovery points of your file. You can choose any point in time to restore the document that you need. A modern third-party backup solution can offer up to 4,000 recovery points that you can rotate daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly based on the grandfather-father-son (GFS) model. The GFS rotation model implies that old recovery points are replaced with new ones. Because of this, the GFS model is a great storage-saver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8. Backups from a single pane of glass<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As we have already mentioned, setting up retention and native data protection policies is not an easy task; it requires high-tech administrative skills. On the other hand, a modern third-party backup solution can provide you all the necessary data protection services from a single pane of glass. This means that you can schedule and manage your backup and recovery jobs via a convenient user interface with a dashboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n