How to Backup your Emails, SharePoint and OneDrives Files

Moving to the Cloud

If there is one thing that we have learned during this lockdown it is that with the various IT Systems available, it is possible to work from home efficiently. With emails on Microsoft Office 365, confidential documents saved in Microsoft OneDrive and those that need to be shared across many users saved in Microsoft SharePoint everyone can have access to whatever they need to carry on working. Combine that with using Microsoft Teams or Zoom to communicate via video link and you have a virtual office.

When we are office based and most files are saved onto an internal server which in turn is backed up on the cloud, we don’t worry so much about deleted files.

However, when everything is stored and saved on the cloud and the default retention policy is used its time for a rethink.

How long are files retained on the cloud?

By default, deleted Office 365 emails are kept for 14 days and then lost, deleted files saved in Microsoft OneDrive are kept for 30 days and those deleted in Microsoft SharePoint are kept for 93 days.

These defaults can be extended but there are solutions available that backup email accounts, OneDrive and SharePoint in the same way as a regular on-line backup system. These can simply be restored if necessary.

What’s the alternative?

Backup systems for email accounts, Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft SharePoint are not expensive and can cost as little £2.75 (ex VAT) per user per month, with little setup cost.

It is worth investigating these solutions, if you have moved to these systems and will potentially carry on using them even after the lockdown is over.

Protecting your data is incredibly important and the last thing you want is for users to be saving to their local PCs and then potentially losing the files after a crash or they just forget where they are.
Placing files in the Cloud is an excellent solution but without dependable backup you are vulnerable to losing everything.