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How to Protect Your Remote Workers from Cloud Data Loss in Microsoft 365 and G Suite

Microsoft 365 Backup

Cloud solutions have never been relied on more than they are now. With millions of employees being sent home to work due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting stay at home orders, businesses in the UK and around the world have had to change how they operate.

This has led to a rise in the use of cloud productivity platforms like Office 365 (recently renamed to Microsoft 365) and G Suite, among others. These platforms make it possible for anywhere access to company applications and data so productivity can continue despite the physical separation from the office.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Microsoft’s cloud solutions have seen a 775% increase in demand.

However, a risk that many companies are taking with remote workers and their use of these SaaS (Software as a Service) tools, is the potential for data loss.

If data contained in cloud solutions like G Suite and Microsoft Office 365 aren’t properly backed up in a third-party tool designed for SaaS backup, then it can be deleted, corrupted, or otherwise lost and unrecoverable.

Backup Your Cloud Services to Prevent Data Loss

A common mistake that many people make is to think that a cloud platform or storage system is the same as a backup and recovery system. It’s not.

Data can be lost from cloud services like Microsoft 365 and G Suite in any number of ways, including:

  • Accidental deletion
  • Malicious deletion
  • Syncing problems
  • Hard disk or storage damage
  • Software corruption
  • Ransomware or other malware
  • Natural disaster impacting the data center

While large cloud providers like Microsoft and Google do their best to mitigate downtime, they also state that outages can occur, which may cause problems with data access.

In Microsoft’s Services Agreement in the Service Availability section, it states:

“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 backup Your Content and Data that you store on the Services or store using Third-Party Apps and Services.”

NMX uses sophisticated SaaS backup solutions to help keep remote workers and the cloud data they work with secure and easily restorable if needed.

With employees working remotely, there is even more risk of potential data loss because of an organisation’s infrastructure being largely reliant on the cloud as a data storage and access system.

Here are some examples of how data can be lost from cloud services and why it’s vital that they be backed up with a third-party solution designed for SaaS backup and recovery.

Short Retention Periods

Cloud services have certain retention periods for items that are removed and in a “deleted items’ folder. This can lead to permanent loss of files if an accidental or malicious file deletion isn’t discovered before that retention period is up.

For example, Exchange Online mailboxes in Microsoft 365 have Single Item Recovery enabled by default with a 14-day retention period. That means a user only has 14 days to restore an item from the Deleted Items folder before it’s permanently gone. If edited, this setting still only has a maximum of 30-days for retention.

Using our SaaS backup solution allows you to keep your emails, files, and other data as long as you like. There are no short retention periods to worry about.

Overwritten Files

Cloud solutions like OneDrive, Dropbox, and SharePoint are designed for team collaboration and to always keep the most recently updated file accessible.

They can sync with a user’s computer and pick up any changes made to a file locally and reflect them in the cloud stored version of the file.

This can lead to accidentally overwriting a file and loss of the original copy.

A major difference between cloud storage in SaaS and cloud backup and recovery is that backup and recovery tools are designed to make a copy of all your data and keep it. That data can’t be overwritten like it can with synching cloud storage systems.

Cloud Platform Outages

Cloud solutions often suffer outages, which can lead to major downtime costs for your business if you don’t have a backup copy of your files to use if you need to.

The average cost for business downtime is £4,479 (US$5,600) per minute.

When a cloud platform is down, remote workers are at a standstill if there is no other way to access the information they need. Having an available backup copy of your cloud data can prevent lost hours of productivity waiting for an outage to be over.

No Comprehensive Recovery Process

Cloud services with file storage aren’t designed with a comprehensive restoration process like a third-party SaaS backup and recovery solution is.

You have more than just documents being stored by remote workers in your cloud platform. Other data includes contacts, emails, tasks, and calendar items. How do you restore those in case of data loss from your cloud service?

Using the SaaS backup solution by NMX IT Solutions, you’re able to backup all data, no matter where it resides within the cloud solution so it can be restored properly when needed.

Ensure Remote Workers are Covered with a Reliable Cloud Service Backup

NMX IT Solutions can help you ensure your entire data infrastructure, including your cloud platforms, are properly backed up so that your data is safe and accessible at all times.

Contact us today to schedule a cloud backup consultation! Call 01628 232300 or reach out online.

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