Why should your business ensure that their 365 instance is properly backed up? Read on, or watch the video above to find out! It’s more crucial than you might think.
The Misunderstanding of Office 365’s Cloud Storage
When you sync your Windows file explorer with OneDrive and/or SharePoint, your files and folders all show up in your folder structure. So, they’re on your PC now, right? Not exactly…
Office 365 by default actually creates dynamic links to files that are stored in the cloud in your file explorer, rather than actually putting the files themselves there. This is indicated by the little cloud icon next to each file. Once you click this “file” it will then download the file to your PC, the Cloud icon becoming a green tick to indicate it has been downloaded.
However, the StorageSense policy on a machine might be set to automatically change these downloaded files back to just cloud-only links if they have not been opened again after a certain amount of time. This can be altered on a file by file basis if the user right clicks the file and clicks “always keep on this device”, which will download the file to the machine permanently, represented by a tick in a solid green circle.
When Things Get Tricky
Recently, we have had scenarios in which this file behaviour can cause problems. For instance, we had a user who was at one point using their own personal device and had the business SharePoint syncing to it, but decided it was probably best to not have company resources on the laptop any more so deleted work files from it….or so they thought. In reality they had deleted things from the cloud as a whole, as OneDrive had synced these changes accordingly.
Another one of our customers was having faults with SharePoint where files started getting moved into the recycle bin, therefore also deleting files from the cloud as a whole as that is where they are really stored.
The Solution
To the surprise of absolutely no one, it is here that we would encourage you, dear reader, to give us a call and sign up for Affirm IT’s comprehensive IT support! This is because we run backups directly at the source; i.e, direct backups of our customers’ 365 instances.
We do this through our Datto backups suite, backing up everything from files and folders to even emails and previously deleted mailboxes you suddenly need to get back! It also allows us to restore backups historically – i.e, specify a certain timeframe such as between X date and Y date, to run a restore from, allowing us to potentially find things you were sure you had one day, but were missing the next!
So if you want to get your 365 files and folders backed up the smart way, you really can’t go wrong with giving Affirm IT a call on 01157530123. Alternatively, you can reach us via email at support@affirmit.co.uk, or message us on LinkedIn. We’re ready to chat faster than you can say “data backup”!
