How MSPs Can Back Up Microsoft 365 for Their Clients
Most organizations using Microsoft 365 services for business needs are interested in business continuity and the ability to recover data to avoid downtime. Some companies consider using backup-as-a-service provided by a managed service provider (MSP) to back up Microsoft 365 data. This blog post explains how MSPs can back up Microsoft 365 data for customers and how to choose the right MSP backup solution for this purpose.
The Importance of Backing Up Microsoft 365 for MSPs
Support for Microsoft 365 backup is important for managed service providers because Microsoft 365 is a widely used cloud service by organizations around the world. Although Microsoft has powerful datacenters with reliable and redundant infrastructure, Microsoft 365 data can still be lost.
Understanding Microsoft’s shared responsibility model
According to the End User License Agreement for Microsoft 365 users, users agree to use the shared responsibility model when it comes to the data generated and stored in Microsoft 365 apps and services. The Microsoft shared responsibility model defines the responsibilities shared between Microsoft and customers (or MSPs on behalf of customers) when using Microsoft 365 cloud services. This model defines that Microsoft is responsible for the operation of its cloud infrastructure and datacenters (server uptime, data redundancy at the datacenter level, etc.). On the other hand, customers are responsible for protecting data on their side against data loss.
- Microsoft responsibilities: Infrastructure and uptime
Microsoft’s field of responsibility is the underlying infrastructure and its security. The company does its best to protect servers and network equipment against hardware failure, replicate data, protect against DDoS attacks, etc. These measures don’t protect data against accidental deletion by users, ransomware attacks at the user’s side or insider threats.
- Customer responsibilities: Data protection and recovery
Customers or managed service providers are responsible for the protection of their own data in Microsoft 365 – they should ensure that the data is protected and can be recovered. This approach includes tasks such as managing Microsoft 365 user accounts in an organization, ensuring data security and implementing backup and recovery plans. Customers should control and address events like accidental data deletion by users, malicious insider activities, ransomware attacks and compliance-related data retention.
For example, Microsoft 365 provides limited recovery windows (30-90 days for deleted items, depending on the service, 93 days maximum), beyond which data may not be recoverable without a backup. If the customer has a backup, then data can be restored in case of corruption caused by a ransomware attack, for example. In certain cases, customers must meet the regulatory requirements which require longer retention compared to the standard retention options available in Microsoft 365 native settings. These tasks can be addressed by using a dedicated backup solution.
Risks of not backing up Microsoft 365 data
If an organization doesn’t back up Microsoft 365 users and data, the risk of data loss increases which, in turn, can cause negative consequences for a business.
- Permanent data loss. If there are no backups, an organization can lose data forever.
- Cyberattacks. Cyberattacks like phishing and ransomware attacks can corrupt Microsoft 365 data by using strong encryption algorithms making it unreadable. Without a Microsoft 365 data protection solution, recovery of corrupted or deleted files due to ransomware is impossible.
- Accidental or intentional deletion of data. Sometimes, users can delete Microsoft 365 data by mistake. This data can be emails, files, folders, SharePoint sites, etc. It may happen that some user deletes data intentionally to harm an organization. Sometimes, data deletion is not detected in time. If the retention period of the native Microsoft 365 tools has expired, it is impossible to recover this data without a backup.
- Compliance violations. If an organization works in a specific industry or region that must meet regulatory and compliance requirements, not having a backup creates a risk of penalties and fines. Regulations like GDPR, HIPAA and SOX often require long-term retention of data and the ability to produce it during audits or legal investigations.
- Business continuity and downtime. Data loss can cause downtime which negatively impacts business activities and may lead to financial losses. Dedicated Microsoft 365 backup solutions are optimized to quickly recover the needed data with minimal manual intervention.
- Legal and financial issues. If an organization is unable to produce the necessary data, such as client information, contracts or financial records, this can lead to legal disputes, fines or loss of business. This is particularly critical in industries that rely on accurate record-keeping, and a lack of backups could expose the organization to lawsuits, financial penalties and reputational damage.
Key MSP Features in a Microsoft 365 Backup Solution
MSPs must use a functional data protection solution to protect customers’ Microsoft 365 data with a high level of efficiency and reliability and with the ability to meet compliance requirements.
- Comprehensive coverage for Microsoft 365 services. An MSP should use a Microsoft 365 data protection solution that covers the main Microsoft 365 services, including:
- Exchange Online: emails, calendars, contacts
- SharePoint Online: sites, document libraries, lists
- OneDrive for Business: user files, folders
- Microsoft Teams: chats, files, shared channels, settings
A complete solution ensures that no critical data is left unprotected.
- Granular recovery capabilities. Granular recovery allows MSPs and their customers to recover specific items, such as individual emails, files, or Microsoft Teams messages, rather than entire mailboxes or sites. This feature is especially useful when a client doesn’t need to recover an entire data set but needs only an email, file, folder or other Microsoft 365 object. Granular recovery speeds up recovery times and, as a result, organizations have lower downtime and disruption of business processes.
- Automated and scheduled backups. To ensure that data is consistently protected, an MSP should use a data protection solution with wide automation and scheduling functionality. This allows MSPs and their customers to configure backup jobs in automatic mode and ensure that data is backed up when needed without manual intervention.
- Flexible retention settings and long-term retention. Microsoft 365 users often need to meet specific retention requirements, including regulatory compliance. The backup solution should provide customizable retention policies to allow for short-term and long-term data retention. It should also meet compliance needs for regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA or SOX, with options for indefinite or multi-year retention as required.
- Data encryption. Security is a top concern for MSPs, and backup solutions should offer end-to-end encryption of data, both in transit and at rest. Encryption allows customers to ensure that sensitive data is secured and protected against unauthorized access during transfer over the network and in storage on-premises or in the cloud.
- Multi-tenant management. An MSP backup solution for Microsoft 365 must include multi-tenant capabilities because MSPs usually manage multiple clients. This allows MSPs to monitor and manage backups for all clients from a single interface. This approach reduces the complexity of management. A Microsoft 365 backup solution for MSP should support role-based access controls (RBAC) to ensure that only authorized team members can access data based on their roles.
- Flexible storage options. MSP backup software for Microsoft 365 should support a variety of storage options that can be used as backup locations for Microsoft 365 data. Customers usually appreciate a variety of storage options such as local repositories, tape and private and public cloud platforms.
- Fast disaster recovery. The best MSP backup solution must provide rapid and effective disaster recovery. This functionality can significantly reduce downtime in case of incidents related to data loss. A backup solution must support granular recovery to quickly restore the specific objects (files, folders, emails, SharePoint sites) needed by customers. A solution that has such functionality allows customers to ensure business continuity and meet strict service level agreements (SLA) and tight recovery time objectives (RTO).
- Scalability. An MSP backup solution for Microsoft 365 should be flexible in terms of scalability. The amount of data used by customers is growing continuously. Expanding backup storage by adding another repository should be supported. The number of customers can also grow and the data protection solution should support handling more customers with their data and related infrastructure.
- Self-service capabilities for clients. MSP backup solutions that offer self-service portals improve client experience when managing Microsoft 365 backup and recovery tasks. These capabilities reduce routine support requests and allow clients to access and recover their data without MSP intervention. As a result, both sides have more flexibility to manage data protection workflows.
How NAKIVO Helps MSPs Back Up Microsoft 365 Effectively
NAKIVO Backup & Replication is a universal data protection solution that supports Microsoft 365 backup and provides multi-tenancy capabilities to meet the needs of MSPs and customers.
- Support for a wide range of protected Microsoft 365 services: Exchange Online (mailboxes, emails, contacts and calendar items), OneDrive for Business (files and folders), SharePoint (sites, lists and libraries) and Microsoft Teams (chats, channels and files).
- Self-service portal for each tenant (customer). When the NAKIVO solution is installed in the multi-tenant mode, the MSP creates tenants who have access to the web interface of their own isolated environment to back up and recover Microsoft 365 data.
- Remote tenants have the ability to manage their resources in their data protection infrastructure (unlike local tenants). MSPs can monitor a remote tenant’s instance of NAKIVO Backup & Replication in the MSP console after the connection on both sides is established.
- Incremental backup. Copy only the changed data blocks since the last backup to significantly improve backup speed and reduce storage space consumption.
- Granular recovery. The NAKIVO solution allows customers to recover specific objects from a Microsoft 365 backup, including emails, contacts, calendars, files, folders, SharePoint sites, lists, libraries, Microsoft Teams channels and their content (files, posts, websites, Word tabs and more).
- Wide storage support for backups. Users can store Microsoft 365 backups on-premises using local backup repositories on Linux and Windows machines, CIFS/NFS shares, NAS devices, tape cartridges, etc. Cloud storage is also supported: Amazon S3, S3-compatible storage, Amazon EC2, Azure Blob Storage and others.
- Backup immutability. Microsoft 365 backups are used to protect data against ransomware. Immutable backups are much more effective from the perspective of ransomware protection. If ransomware gets access to backup storage, immutable backups cannot be modified or deleted.
- High scalability. Federated repositories allow providers to extend an existing backup repository by adding other members to the federated repository. More free storage space is available in the same repository without the need to reconfigure backup jobs to use other new repositories. An MSP can add more tenants when needed and allocate resources for them.
- Backup encryption. NAKIVO Backup & Replication supports backup encryption. MSPs and customers can create encrypted backup repositories and enable source-side backup encryption before copying and storing data. When using source-side backup encryption, data is transferred over the network in the encrypted state.
- Advanced scheduling and retention settings. With the NAKIVO solution, customers can configure any backup schedules and retention settings using flexible options. It is possible to configure the GFS retention scheme and more complex policies. Flexible scheduling options allow you to create backups automatically when needed to ensure maximum protection.
Best Practices for MSPs to Effectively Back Up Microsoft 365 Data
It is recommended that MSPs follow the best practices for Microsoft 365 backup and related services to ensure data protection, recovery and compliance requirements for customers.
- Implement regular and automated Microsoft 365 backups to reduce the risk of data loss.
- Use customizable retention policies to allow customers to meet their backup policies and compliance requirements.
- Provide granular recovery options to speed up and make the recovery process more effective when specific objects need to be recovered.
- Implement data encryption and other security measures to protect backup data against unauthorized access.
- Use the multi-tenant deployment for effective management of multiple clients.
- Enable self-service backup options to enhance client satisfaction and reduce the number of support tickets.
- Apply ransomware protection features such as backup immutability.
- Provide fast recovery capabilities to meet tight RTO values.
Ensuring Compliance for MSPs with Microsoft 365 Backups
Managed Service Providers should ensure compliance with regulation requirements to make it possible for customers to meet them. MSPs must be familiar with relevant data protection laws that apply to their clients, such as:
- GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe
- HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) in the healthcare sector
- SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act) in finance and public companies
- CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) in the U.S.
Microsoft 365 backup software for MSP can help with regulation compliance by enabling data protection through reliable backup and recovery capabilities. The main functionalities that can ensure compliance include encryption, ransomware protection with immutability and monitoring, role-based access control, backup testing, flexible scheduling and retention settings.
Conclusion
When choosing an MSP backup solution for Microsoft 365 backups, providers should consider the software that supports essential Microsoft 365 services and offers multi-tenancy, backup encryption, incremental backup, granular recovery, multiple storage locations and backup immutability. Choosing the right backup solution allows an MSP to satisfy existing customers and attract more users.
