If You Use Office 365, Do You Still Need to Backup Your Data?

The short answer is, Yes.

Microsoft Office 365 is a cloud-based office software suite designed to enable modern teams. It has location redundancy, meaning that your data is backed up over multiple data banks so that if one goes down, your team can keep working. It also saves your data and keeps deleted files for one to three months. Files you keep active on Office 365 are extremely robust.  Even two major natural disasters couldn't take your data down. You also may have noticed that Office 365 appears to back everything up to the clouds so that no data is lost, even with interrupted connections and new locations.

But even with Microsoft 365's cloud features, you still need to backup your data with private methods. Office 365 may be on the cloud, but it cannot (and does not) replace the duty of responsible and regular backups. 

From HIPAA to the GDPR, there are dozens of rules for how to classify and secure sensitive data. The data that could put your employees, business partners and customers most at risk must be stored through methods that are safe from hackers and malware. It goes without saying that sensitive data must be handled with care. But what does that care look like inside the company when the sensitive data is actively in use? When your employees access sensitive to personalize assets or study for analysis, how can they be careful with the data so as to reduce the chance of mishandling mistakes?

The following guidelines can help you keep your business's precious sensitive data safe not just in storage, but when in active use by programs and employees.

Now that most, stay-at-home orders are being lifted and workers at least are returning to the office. While some companies have chosen to keep their teams remote until the situation is more stable (Google, for example, is not returning workers to the office until next summer), others are going for a hybrid or phased approach. For some offices, only people who have things to do in the office that day are coming in. Others are rotating workers on a daily or weekly basis.

Regardless of the approach, IT must now deal with a world in which some workers are in the office and others are remote, and this is likely to last until well into 2023 and beyond. As workers return to the office, companies need to pivot back, but they need to do so very carefully.

Company devices are a serious investment, especially for a small business. A supply of laptops, phones, and tablets can drastically increase the efficiency of your team, but they also live the higher-risk lifespan of any actively used mobile device. Sometimes they get lost or stolen. This can happen with devices carried by employees, sent home with employees, and even active-use mobile devices in the office.

So what do you do when one of your highly valued company devices goes missing? These things happen, often by accident or outside of employee control.  With the right response plan, you can mitigate the loss and prevent thieves from accessing your proprietary business data or logins. Whether you are dealing with a device loss right now or making disaster-aversion plans, let's talk about small business tactics for lost or stolen devices. 

In recent years, there has been an uptick in the number of organizations migrating from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365. One of the critical concerns on your mind if you're eyeing the move should be how to plan and execute it.

Remember that the migration is a significant decision, which can result in critical data loss if performed incorrectly. So, here's the ultimate guide to migrating your business from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365.