As you’ve all seen, our Manage-IT service is getting an update. Here’s some more details as to why.

The New Service Plan

The new service plan includes backups to reduce risk to your business and keep your data safe and recoverable. Using Exchange Online or Microsoft 365 without any backup is unsafe in the long term, like driving without a seatbelt. Incidents are rare, but not so rare that users can afford to assume it won’t happen to them.

Having regular backups can also be compared to insurance; it stays out of sight and mind until needed, at which point it can make all the difference between success and disaster.

Safety Concerns

We include this backup service to ensure the safety of our customers. We no longer provide the unsecured service plan to avoid being associated with any data loss incidents that could seriously affect our customers.

We’ve discouraged customers from getting the bare Exchange Online or Microsoft 365 services without backup, due to the risk of data loss affecting our customers and reputation.

If you lose files, you could be left with no way to recover them, which could be catastrophic enough to cost more than the backup would have, and can have lasting consequences for your business.

Cloud Storage is Not Backup

It’s important to note that files in Exchange Online, Microsoft 365, or any kind of cloud service are not necessarily backed up. Being accessible from other computers means your data is protected from hard drive failure, or anything else directly happening to your computer, but that leaves your data vulnerable to attacks:

• Ransomware
• Someone else accessing the account

Or even an honest mistake or accident:

• Deleting the wrong file
• Mistakes in organising files

There is a clear distinction between what Microsoft is responsible for, and what the user is responsible for:  Microsoft is responsible for the Exchange Online and Microsoft 365 services, but not the data people store.