Your Data May Be Backed Up - But What About Your Email?
Most users are aware of how important data backup is - but not everyone realizes that email backup is essential too. Are you assuming your email is backed up, just because it’s in the cloud?
Over the past few years, productivity suites have become more and more popular with businesses of all sizes, in a wide and varied range of industries. It's the type of solution that has something to offer everyone - especially when it comes to email.
Whether you're using Microsoft Office 365, or G Suite, you're likely quite content with their relative email clients, Outlook and Gmail. You probably assume that your emails are secure and backed up since they're hosted in the cloud.
But is that the case?
4 Questions To Ask About Microsoft Office 365 Backup Capabilities
You can't just assume your email is being backed up properly - you have to ask the right questions to be sure:
- Will I Retain My Data? At the rate that technology evolves (and how quickly your standard operations and concerned policies are required to keep up with it), it’s no surprise that some businesses find it challenging to keep up with.
When policy development falls behind the pace of adopted technologies, it can often lead to gaps, which can affect data retention, including your emails. The fact is that Microsoft Office 365 only has limited backup and retention policies, equipped to handle situational data loss – not comprehensive.
- Am I Protected Against Cybercrime? Data loss is often the result of poor digital security; without the right defenses, cybercriminals can quickly infect an IT system with ransomware or other types of malware and compromise company data, which can affect your locally stored emails.
You may have heard that the right antimalware solution will minimize the chance of data loss, but what about internal threats? It’s not fun to think about, but domestic security threats (i.e. malicious employees) can cause just as much damage as external cybercriminals. - Am I Protected Against My Employees? Much of data protection is dependent on the user, and as such, it's vital that you properly educate your employees in safe conduct. The more your workforce knows about the security measures you have in place, the more confidently they can use the technology is a secure manner. Users delete data all the time, and not necessarily maliciously. We have seen many cases where a user deletes a file, a folder, or even a library. The recycle bin will protect you when a deletion is noticed immediately, but after time, that bin is emptied, and data is lost forever. Human error can be detrimental to data integrity. Without a viable backup, all it takes is one accidental click to delete a file, or one spilled coffee to fry a local hard drive.
- Am I Compliant? When it comes to modern compliance requirements, redundant data backups are critical. You'll want to make sure you know what’s required of your industry’s compliance regulations, and make sure you have backup methods in place to meet those. The default backup capabilities offered by Microsoft Office 365 may not suffice for the most stringent regulations.
What To Look For In A Data Backup Solution For Your Email
The best way to enhance the data backup capabilities of your funeral home software system is to work with a capable IT company. Be sure to work with one that can fulfill the following requirements:
- Comprehensive Backups: The backup solution should provide both local onsite backup for quick recovery in instances of data loss, as well as an offsite cloud-based backup for when your business is hit with a critical disaster.
- Regular Testing: Your IT company shouldn't expect you to assume that your backups will just work when needed. They should regularly test your backups to verify their effectivity if something goes wrong with your onsite data.
- Convenient Restoration: Don’t settle for clumsy, all-or-nothing backups. You should be able to choose a point in time to restore if the data has been deleted, corrupted, or there has been a malicious intrusion.
The key is in finding the right third-party backup solution to keep your data protected against hardware failure, ransomware, human error, and whatever else may occur.
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