If you are using Microsoft 365, you may not of even thought about needing a backup, as all of the data is already in “The Cloud”, right? However, what “The Cloud” is, is just simply collections of servers in datacentres owned by Microsoft. Whilst Microsoft in particular so have “replication”, this is not the same thing as a “backup”, this is explained in our blog here.

Why should I get a backup?

It is often a misconception that Microsoft backs everything up that’s held in their cloud, but what they actually do is ensure service availability, redundancy, and basic retention. But it does not provide full backups of your data, so if emails were deleted (and fell outside of the standard retention period), there is a ransomware infection, or user deletions, Microsoft would not be able to restore the data back to a specific point in time.

What a proper cloud backup solution for Microsoft 365 offers is full backup of Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams, with ability for granular restoration or full, specific point in time restoration. That way, if there is ever an incident, malicious or otherwise, then you are able to rely on your independent backup to do either granular restoration of data or a step back in time approach, this also aid in obtaining certifications for compliance and ensuring you have backups in place.

An important thing to remember when it comes to this, is that Microsoft protects the platform. You are responsible for protecting your data. Overall, a dedicated M365 backup solution ensures, your data is always recoverable, you meet regulatory requirements, you can restore quickly after mistakes or attacks, you stay in control of your business‑critical information.