Did You Know That Microsoft Office 365 Customers Are Not Automatically Protected Against Data Loss?

Therefore, businesses must take action themselves if they want to protect their emails in the long term.

An email archiving solution can be an important component when it comes to preserving and storing business-critical emails over the long term. However, deciding on the most suitable solution for a company's needs is often not easy.

To help companies make a decision on this matter, market research institute Osterman Research prepared a technical analysis on how small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can adequately protect their business-critical data. The technical analysis examines what features your company needs and whether it would be better served by a third-party solution such as MailStore Server or by locally installed archiving options integrated with Microsoft Office 365.

Key Discussion Points in the White Paper

The technical analysis compares various archiving options available in Microsoft Office 365:

• Exchange Online Archiving (EOA)
• On-Premises Archiving
• Automatic Archiving ("archive" also known as PST) and
• The "Archive" button in Microsoft Outlook

In addition, it examines the following key discussion points:

Taking Responsibility for Your Data

The responsibility for protecting and preserving data lies with the customer, not with Microsoft ("shared responsibility model").

Risk of Data Loss

Emails must be protected against accidental or malicious deletion; otherwise, fulfilling legal, regulatory, and best practice obligations can become a difficult task. Although Microsoft Office 365 has the ability to restore accidentally deleted data, situations can arise that disrupt daily business operations or even pose serious threats.

The Difference Between Backup and Archiving Solutions

Backup and archiving solutions pursue different goals: backups are snapshots of a single moment in time and are required for tactical reasons to quickly recover data in case of system failure or disaster. In contrast, archiving is used strategically so that data can be preserved and searched for over a long period of time without change.

Self-Service for End Users

A third-party email archiving solution enables end users to quickly and efficiently search their own data and restore emails, thus lightening the burden on IT staff.

Independence from Microsoft

Without a third-party email archiving solution, users cannot access their emails if the Microsoft Office 365 service fails. Therefore, a third-party solution can help prevent dependency on the vendor while maintaining the portability of your archived emails.

Source: New Technical Analysis: Archiving Emails in Office 365 (mailstore.com)