Microsoft 365 remains by far the most dominant system for enterprises and organizations worldwide. This has had, however, a corresponding effect on how much attention needs to be placed on preserving data from this system; Microsoft Office documents has consistently ranked first by number of attempts by cyber criminals to exploit vulnerabilities. What can we do to preserve data from Microsoft 365 most effectively?
The main thing to come back to is Microsoft’s Shared Responsibility Model. Microsoft clearly states that although Microsoft 365 offers an array of robust applications and services, a backup solution is not natively built into those services. Neither are archives or other long-term storage or regulation compliance tools.
How do I preserve Microsoft 365 Data?
The solution is to look for third party tools that fix these issues, either backups or archiving software. This covers all the bases of what Microsoft does not support natively. And this is largely being done, with a mixture of third-party software offered both as an on-premises out of the box solution, a backup-as-a-service system, or on a variety of Cloud offers.
The main difficulty is finding a solution that covers as many needs as possible in as effective a manner as possible; many organizations end up running separate archives, backups and data management systems, slowly patchworking on new solutions as needs present themselves. With the complex and shifting world of international regulations and eDiscovery requirements added on top, this can end up meaning three or four separate software solutions.
What should organizations look for?
When choosing an archive and backup, organizations should create a short list of business needs and attempt to research available options to best match. Key considerations include:
- Data regulations – what environment does your organization work in, and what regulations do they need to adhere to? The software you select needs to account for these
- eDiscovery and Legal Holds – similar to data regulation, check what laws apply to you and ensure that the system you put in place meets these needs
- Data security – how is the system configurable? Can it be duplicated into several different mediums as per the 3-2-1 Backup rule? Is data in it encrypted? Cybersecurity starts with securing your data!
- Data recovery – if a breach occurs, can data in your archives continue to be accessed? Is there a way to do selective rollbacks, or is it only a full restore?
- Price – what needs are being met for what price? Keep in mind if all your needs are not fully met, you will incur additional costs by needing secondary systems – or worse, incur one-time costs when resolving either legal issues or disaster recovery
Keep these in mind and ensure that your organization is prepared to make successful decisions regarding future procurement.
Your Data In Your Hands – With TECH-ARROW
