Last week we looked at cloud storage benefits and drawbacks this week we are looking at the backup. Microsoft cloud backup is becoming more common in businesses with its benefits around accidental deletion and other aspects being clear however there are some issues around implementing this system.
Pros of cloud backup
If there is a issue with your personal systems as the backup happens frequently throughout the day the chances of data loss are reduced allowing Microsoft to hold the backup safely. Deletion does not necessarily mean the data is lost.
Recovery of data is easy and this reduced downtime around the system. This ensures that businesses that have had a major disruption do not have the issue of large downtimes if their data is backed up on Microsoft.
Compliance and legal aspects can be required for any business and this software does enable aspects to be met as data is held for a long period with backups and often logs available of backups.
Cons of cloud backup
One key issue is security Microsoft expect their customers to have shared responsibility meaning that bad actors with access arent necessarily Microsoft’s issue to resolve. Microsoft currently offers a range of tools an example of this is the Security and Compliance Centre.
Permanent deletions in 365 can be an issue as there are backup deletions however if you go into trash it will be deleted from there in 30 days (14 is the default) or if selected for deletion it will be removed permanently. Selecting what to backup is important as email backup might not be enabled meaning emails could all be deleted permanently.
Summary
Overall there is not complete correct answer, cloud does offer more robustness to companies around storage. Priorities often dictate implementation of backup, if you need consistent documented backup and easy access cloud might be the correct decision. However if you want more control over the security and ownership another system might be better.
