Third-party Microsoft 365 cloud backup

Overcoming Microsoft 365 backup limitations with third-party cloud backup

Microsoft 365® is a powerful engine for organizational productivity, with Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive all connecting employees and ensuring business operations flow smoothly. While collaboration and access-anywhere capabilities are table stakes for modern business, many IT teams underestimate the protection needed when big-name vendors such as Microsoft are involved. Unfortunately, the reality is, Microsoft 365 backup is not automatic, and IT pros need a third-party tool for cloud backup of this business-critical data.

While Microsoft does ensure service uptime and infrastructure reliability, it does not cover data loss, recovery, or long-term business continuity, and recommends a third-party backup solution. The responsibility for these business-critical strategies rests solely with the organization and your IT support team. Identifying a comprehensive solution that can be implemented and managed with ease is essential, but finding the right tool to help you take control can be challenging.

Key takeaways

• Microsoft 365 backup is not done by default: As part of the shared responsibility model, IT teams must protect data against accidental deletion, cyberthreats, and compliance gaps.
• Native retention tools have limits: Relying solely on Microsoft’s built-in features can lead to lost data and slow recovery during critical incidents.
• Granular, fast restores reduce downtime: Recover everything from a single email to an entire mailbox in minutes, not hours.
• Flexible retention and immutable storage: Maintain compliance with industry regulations while protecting cloud backup integrity and bootability for ransomware resilience.
• ConnectWise Cloud Backup™ automates daily protection: Up to six backups per day of Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Groups, Teams, and Planner data.

The Microsoft 365 Backup and the Shared Responsibility Model

It’s easy to assume Microsoft backs up everything based on its robust cloud service and built-in redundancy. Unfortunately, that assumption is incorrect, and it could be catastrophic when your organization attempts to recover. Microsoft keeps the Microsoft 365 platform online, but it does not guarantee protection against user error, cyberattacks, or accidental deletion of organizational data.

According to Section 6b of the Microsoft Services Agreement, Microsoft strives to “…keep the services up and running; however, all online services suffer occasional disruptions and outages, and Microsoft is not liable for any disruption or loss you may suffer as a result. In the event of an outage, you may not be able to retrieve your content or data that you’ve stored. We recommend that you regularly back up your content and data that you store on the services or store using third-party apps and services.”

Understanding the Shared Responsibility Matrix for Microsoft 365 means grasping and acting on two crucial factors for delivering business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR):

1. Microsoft is responsible for global infrastructure, app uptime, and platform-level security.
2. You are responsible for data access, retention, recovery, and compliance.

This means that if a user deletes a file, a phishing attack compromises your data, or you need to recover an employee’s mailbox months after departure, you’re on your own. Microsoft 365 only includes a few short-term native protections, such as the recycle bin, version history, and litigation holds. However, even these tools have limitations: 

• Short retention windows: By default, deleted items in Exchange Online or SharePoint are retained for only 14 days, or up to 30 days with special configuration.
• No true point-in-time recovery: Restoring large volumes of files or reverting to specific historical versions is not easy or a guaranteed capability.
• Complex restores: Restoring single emails or calendar events requires time-consuming and frustrating workarounds for granular recovery.
• No ransomware rollback: Microsoft doesn’t offer built-in protection to recover from widespread malicious encryption or data loss incidents.
• Compliance blind spots: Meeting strict regulatory or legal retention requirements can be challenging or impossible without external backups and proof of recoverability.

Microsoft 365 wasn’t designed to back up organizational data. It was intended for organizational productivity.  Failure to recognize your part in the shared responsibility model and see the cybersecurity risks of not using a third-party backup for Microsoft 365 data leaves an enormous vulnerability in your data protection strategy.

Five reasons IT pros must back up Microsoft 365

Between uptime, security, onboarding, training, hardware management, cloud services, and increasing cyber resilience, IT teams are already stretched thin. Still, Microsoft 365 needs a backup solution, regardless of the business's industry, size, scope, or location. Just like any other critical system, backups are essential for recovery, and that’s a requirement of business continuity.

1. Protect against human error: Employees accidentally delete files, empty the recycle bin, or overwrite important documents more often than cyberattacks. Without a proper backup solution, recovering these files is difficult, if not impossible.
2. Defend against ransomware and cyberthreats: Ransomware attacks target large cloud platforms such as Microsoft 365, but native restores are insufficient when mailboxes, files, or Teams chats are encrypted or deleted. For complete restoration, organizations require isolated, immutable backups that can be restored from a clean point in time.
3. Support legal and compliance requirements: Whether you’re subject to HIPAA, GDPR, FINRA, or internal audit policies, it’s critical to retain and retrieve data for set periods. Native Microsoft retention policies are limited and costly, putting the business at risk for steep penalties, fines, and reputational damage.
4. Streamline onboarding and knowledge transfer: When an employee leaves an organization, their OneDrive and mailbox data are at risk of being compromised. IT teams must retain and reassign the data without breaking workflows or violating policies. Backups safeguard the data, ensuring availability and accessibility, even after a user’s departure.
5. Accelerate recovery times: Relying on Microsoft’s native tools during a crisis can slow down your response and contribute to downtime and frustration. Near-instant restores of individual emails, files, folders, or entire mailboxes are crucial for maintaining operational continuity, regardless of the circumstances.

Purpose-built Microsoft 365 protection for IT providers

For organizations to maintain data security and uninterrupted operations, they must adopt an enterprise-grade Microsoft 365 backup solution. ConnectWise Cloud Backup is designed to fulfill the shared responsibility to protect Microsoft 365 data, offering automated, scalable, and secure backups across Microsoft 365 services, including Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint, Groups, Teams, and Planner. Here’s what you get with ConnectWise:

• Automated daily backups: Perform automatic and encrypted backups up to six times daily, capturing emails, files, calendar events, and more without disrupting workflows or users. All data is encrypted, secured, and stored in a separate tamper-proof cloud.
• Various restore options: Restore exactly what you need with bulk, granular, point-in-time, and cross-recovery to retrieve a single email, an entire mailbox, a single file, or a full SharePoint site.
• Immutable, isolated storage: Backups are kept separate from Microsoft’s infrastructure to ensure data protection even if your 365 environment is compromised. Data immutability safeguards the organization from complete downtime during a Microsoft 365 outage.
• Simple, centralized management: Manage all Microsoft 365 backups through a single intuitive interface with dashboards, activity logs, and quick search capabilities that do not require command-line interfaces or third-party tools.
• Customizable retention: Meet industry-specific data retention policies with flexible retention options that allow you to hold data for 30 days or several years.

ConnectWise Cloud Backup supports more than just disaster recovery. It’s a tool for everyday IT operations, giving teams the ability to:

• Recover from user mistakes without interrupting workflows.
• Support HR and legal departments with mailbox access post-termination.
• Provide documentation during audits, legal discovery, and for cyber insurability.
• Reduce dependency on Microsoft 365’s complex retention settings.
• Simplify onboarding, offboarding, and data migration.

Don’t wait for a crisis to rethink Microsoft 365 backup

In total, ConnectWise Cloud Backup helps IT teams operate with confidence, knowing that their Microsoft 365 data is protected, restorable, and under their control. On the other hand, if you are relying on Microsoft 365’s native tools to recover lost data, you’re gambling with business continuity. Recovery is about more than reacting to ransomware or outages. It’s about being ready for the everyday mishaps that can halt productivity and erode trust.

ConnectWise Cloud Backup eliminates the uncertainty surrounding Microsoft 365 data protection. Learn more in the links below and start protecting Microsoft 365 today.

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