Why Collaboration Data Needs to be Backed Up

In today’s business environment, the majority of collaboration content is acted upon and stored electronically in Software as a Service (SaaS) applications such as M365. Collaboration content is being modified and edited on a regular basis and is also a driver of productivity. Given the importance of this data, it is crucial to ensure that businesses have a backup plan for this data.  

The backup of this data protects against accidental deletion and security threats. Think of backups as insurance against factors which may result in undesired changes to business data.  

Let’s look at the elements to consider when backing up collaboration data. 

Data 

In determining what data to back up and what the best solutions may be, the first element to consider is in regard to the data itself. There are three questions that businesses need to consider. 

First, where does the primary data reside?  In an application such as M365, much of the content is in Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive and even services such as Planner. Understanding this will help build appropriate back up plans. 

The second question that needs to be considered is how important the data is to the business? The importance of collaboration data and content may vary from one business to the next depending on how they use the services. This knowledge will help with determining the scope of the content that will be backed up as well as the storage capacity required. 

The third question is how frequently does the data change? The answer to this question will help determine how often the back ups will occur and clarify the recovery point objective as well as the recovery time objective. 

Structure 

In the event of an issue, accidental or otherwise, having a backup of the data as well as the structure of that data will lead to a seamless restoration process and does not cause too much disruption to the users. 

For example, some users of services like OneDrive organize their folders subfolders and files in a very structured manner. The ability to maintain that structure for the users will be very beneficial to them.  

Configurations 

These define how a workspace operates and include things such as permissions and settings. Including this information as part of the backup process helps bring back the workspace to its operational state without having to re-create the configurations for the workspaces. 

In addition, the different collaboration tools may have different configurations therefore understanding these differences and including them within the backup process will allow for seamless business continuity. 

A backup plan and process that includes all three of the above elements will provide a good restore process resulting in a better and smoother return to operations for businesses.  

Contact us to see how we can help with your backup needs.