The Business Case for Backing up Cloud Data from Office 365

One of the first things you do when you buy a house is to purchase a homeowners’ insurance policy. You may not ever cash in on the benefit, but if you find your basement covered in three inches of water from the last downpour, it’ll be worth the small cost of protecting your savings account.

A data security solution for businesses is much the same: you don’t need data security until you do, and it’s too late once the flood of data threats arrive.

Switching to Office 365 is a smart business decision for small to medium businesses looking to increase flexibility, decrease time spent on their on-premise data storage, and stay compliant with new regulations like the GDPR.

But what happens when that data gets hacked? When an employee accidentally deletes a file? Learn why smart businesses invest in cloud data backup from the start.

Time Investment

You may have switched to Office 365 because the cloud provides relief from the constant upkeep of running a data center or infrastructure management for Microsoft Exchange. On-premise data solutions take an incredible amount of time and worry that is (mostly) passed along to Microsoft’s SecOps team in the cloud.

It’s still essential to back up your data with a third-party enterprise cloud backup solution in case of accidental file deletion or malware.

Cost Savings

Cost savings is one of the main attractions for businesses to make the switch from Exchange to the cloud with Office 365. Backing up cloud data from Office 365 is a smart fiscal choice for most companies, even small to medium-sized enterprises, because it takes away the cost of hardware and other spendy aspects of on-premise storage.

However, beware the hidden costs of Office 365 if you don’t back your data up.

• Lost data is expensive: Businesses lose between $50,000 to $5 million from productivity halts downtime creates.
• Suspended accounts are a cost you shouldn’t have to bear: When someone leaves your company, Office 365 suggests suspending the license so you can access the data connected to their account (and your former employee cannot). You can skip this cost by archiving the data in a data security solution like Backupify.

Dev Tool Risks

Two years ago Microsoft announced a lineup of developer tool integrations (like Azure) to make creating and shipping apps easier and more efficient. Office 365 supports the major platforms (Android, JavaScript, Python, iOS) and gives insights to developers through Microsoft Graph analytics.

All of these are fantastic tools, and all run the risk of data breaches–especially through human error. Authentication is a step that even the most attentive developer could miss during a busy sprint. Ensure you don’t lose data forever or become subject to ransomware demands; back up your data with a cloud security solution that provides an added layer of serenity.

Compliance

With EU GDPR regulations, HIPPA standards, and other important data privacy protections in place, your organization needs to protect all data from scams, malware, and human error. As IBM points out in this interview, threat analysis typically only happens after a breach. Although data can be restored, it is an arduous process that can be avoided with a cloud data solution for SMBs.

With hackers incentivized to stay ahead of data storage platforms, it’s increasingly important to maintain compliance with data privacy regulations with a data security solution that is focused solely on protecting your data, while keeping it accessible to users.

Learn how Backupify keeps your Office 365 data secure now.