For the vast majority of companies email is a crucial element for workflows and communications. In reality there are more than 3.9 billion active users of email around the world and Gmail as well as Outlook 365 leading the pack for business and enterprise accounts.
For most employees, it’s commonplace to communicate important information and data through email, without giving the importance of the information an additional thought. But, without a backup or recovery strategy, the loss of email (accidental and not) could affect a company’s data or compliance as well as overall efficiency at risk.
Learn more about the native backup options or you can take backup services for Microsoft 365 mail in Microsoft Office 365, and the reasons SaaS backup should be component of your overall plan for data security.
Backing up Emails on Microsoft 365
If you’re using Microsoft 365, the platform does save emails–to some extent but doesn’t save your information.
Microsoft 365 operates on a shared responsibility model. That means Microsoft 365 will collaborate to you for the scenarios below:
- Datacenter security, both network and physical
- Replication, storage and redundancy
- Privacy and uptime guarantees are their fundamental principle (“if we aren’t able to protect individuals, we’re not worthy of the trust of their families”) from the Microsoft security strategy
- Security from the most serious events that affect their data centers, such as hardware or software malfunctions natural disasters, power interruptions, Operating System errors, etc.
But with regards to emails loss, malicious or accidental destruction of information is the sole responsibility for the business. In lieu of a real Microsoft 365 backup service, it only offers archive capabilities.
The Exchange as well as IMAP servers will automatically store your emails by storing your emails for a specified period of time. Two ways that you can back up your email, either automatically as well as manually.
AutoArchive in Microsoft 365
You’ll be able access the archived emails from any location anytime. AutoArchive files can be found in: C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\Outlook Files\archive.pst. If you wish to backup your things locally on your computer and then automatically move or erase older files by using AutoArchive as well as export these to an .pst file.
Manual Archive in Microsoft 365
The ability to archive emails is available. emails using these steps:
1. Select File > Open & Export > Import/Export.
2. Choose Export to a file next, then choose Next.
3. Choose Outlook Data File (.pst) then select Next.
4. Choose the folder in which you wish to backup and click Next.
5. Select a location and a name for the backup file and then click Finish.
6. If you wish to secure access to your files, you must create and confirm a password then click OK.
You can also create your own custom archive settings, depending on your specific needs.
Although these options are beneficial to have, backing up using Microsoft 365 does have its limitations, and it might not be the most ideal method of backing up your information. One of the biggest disadvantages of Microsoft 365’s ability to archive is the ageing period for items. If an item reaches an end point in its age period, it’s removed out of Microsoft 365. For companies looking for an all-encompassing and consistent backup system, this isn’t the ideal solution. The ageing period for various products can be described like this:
