O365 and backups
-
@scottalanmiller said in O365 and backups:
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
Who knows... but important production data is data, hosted by MS or not... it should be backed up is how I'm leaning.
Technically, backups aren't quite that important. The old adage that everything needs to be backed up doesn't actually hold up under scrutiny. Certainly 99.99% of things should be, but there is still that lingering .01%. Outside of tech, we don't back up too many things in life, we consider the cost and effort to outweigh the benefits. In IT, this still happens sometimes.
And then there is "what is a backup?" O365 is backed up. Maybe not to the degree or in the way that we'd want, but it is backed up to some degree. So at least part of the fear of not having a backup is already handled. And super reliable systems don't always need backups.
Example... a cheap, fragile system with a backup might lose data once ever 200 operational years. What if we built a system that was so reliable that without a backup it would only lose data once every 220 operational years? If the backups were accepted for the first system, they are unnecessary for the second.
We often see backups as a checkbox, but technically they are just a factor in resultant protection against data loss. If you get acceptable protection without them, they aren't needed.
I haven't tested the O365 backup software yet, but I do know that every single email and OneDrive account does not need to be backed up. Can you pick and choose?
I don't expect permanent data loss due to a failure that bad at Microsoft, but then again, I can't guarantee it. What they have is already enough via all their current protection tiers. But if something happens at the account level leaving those tiers inaccessible or lost, then the backup will be the only way to get it back.
-
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
@scottalanmiller said in O365 and backups:
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
Who knows... but important production data is data, hosted by MS or not... it should be backed up is how I'm leaning.
Technically, backups aren't quite that important. The old adage that everything needs to be backed up doesn't actually hold up under scrutiny. Certainly 99.99% of things should be, but there is still that lingering .01%. Outside of tech, we don't back up too many things in life, we consider the cost and effort to outweigh the benefits. In IT, this still happens sometimes.
And then there is "what is a backup?" O365 is backed up. Maybe not to the degree or in the way that we'd want, but it is backed up to some degree. So at least part of the fear of not having a backup is already handled. And super reliable systems don't always need backups.
Example... a cheap, fragile system with a backup might lose data once ever 200 operational years. What if we built a system that was so reliable that without a backup it would only lose data once every 220 operational years? If the backups were accepted for the first system, they are unnecessary for the second.
We often see backups as a checkbox, but technically they are just a factor in resultant protection against data loss. If you get acceptable protection without them, they aren't needed.
I haven't tested the O365 backup software yet, but I do know that every single email and OneDrive account does not need to be backed up. Can you pick and choose?
In theory, depending on the service. But I doubt it would be worth it too often. Going that route, likely some better way for the rare high profile data.
-
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
I don't expect permanent data loss due to a failure that bad at Microsoft, but then again, I can't guarantee it.
Can't guarantee it if you host yourself, or if you add a backup. Guarantees don't exist. All we do is increase the reliability level. MS already has backups for that scenario, so you are getting into a backup of a backup range, not a backup or no backup one.
-
@scottalanmiller said in O365 and backups:
MS already has backups for that scenario
You know this for sure?
Didn't you experience permanent data loss with some O365 accounts do to licensing screw-up on their part, where a backup would have been nice?
-
I just found this:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/back-up-email
But that's specific to email, not including OneDrive and SharePoint data.
-
Foudn this but it's two years old:
It looks like OneDrive uses SharePoint technology and is backed up.
-
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
@scottalanmiller said in O365 and backups:
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
Who knows... but important production data is data, hosted by MS or not... it should be backed up is how I'm leaning.
Technically, backups aren't quite that important. The old adage that everything needs to be backed up doesn't actually hold up under scrutiny. Certainly 99.99% of things should be, but there is still that lingering .01%. Outside of tech, we don't back up too many things in life, we consider the cost and effort to outweigh the benefits. In IT, this still happens sometimes.
And then there is "what is a backup?" O365 is backed up. Maybe not to the degree or in the way that we'd want, but it is backed up to some degree. So at least part of the fear of not having a backup is already handled. And super reliable systems don't always need backups.
Example... a cheap, fragile system with a backup might lose data once ever 200 operational years. What if we built a system that was so reliable that without a backup it would only lose data once every 220 operational years? If the backups were accepted for the first system, they are unnecessary for the second.
We often see backups as a checkbox, but technically they are just a factor in resultant protection against data loss. If you get acceptable protection without them, they aren't needed.
I haven't tested the O365 backup software yet, but I do know that every single email and OneDrive account does not need to be backed up. Can you pick and choose?
I don't expect permanent data loss due to a failure that bad at Microsoft, but then again, I can't guarantee it. What they have is already enough via all their current protection tiers. But if something happens at the account level leaving those tiers inaccessible or lost, then the backup will be the only way to get it back.
With Veeam, you can pick and choose what you want to backup. Either the full user, or only OneDrive + email for the user, etc. Pretty flexible.
-
@scottalanmiller said in O365 and backups:
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
@scottalanmiller said in O365 and backups:
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
Who knows... but important production data is data, hosted by MS or not... it should be backed up is how I'm leaning.
Technically, backups aren't quite that important. The old adage that everything needs to be backed up doesn't actually hold up under scrutiny. Certainly 99.99% of things should be, but there is still that lingering .01%. Outside of tech, we don't back up too many things in life, we consider the cost and effort to outweigh the benefits. In IT, this still happens sometimes.
And then there is "what is a backup?" O365 is backed up. Maybe not to the degree or in the way that we'd want, but it is backed up to some degree. So at least part of the fear of not having a backup is already handled. And super reliable systems don't always need backups.
Example... a cheap, fragile system with a backup might lose data once ever 200 operational years. What if we built a system that was so reliable that without a backup it would only lose data once every 220 operational years? If the backups were accepted for the first system, they are unnecessary for the second.
We often see backups as a checkbox, but technically they are just a factor in resultant protection against data loss. If you get acceptable protection without them, they aren't needed.
I haven't tested the O365 backup software yet, but I do know that every single email and OneDrive account does not need to be backed up. Can you pick and choose?
In theory, depending on the service. But I doubt it would be worth it too often. Going that route, likely some better way for the rare high profile data.
May be true for most cases but can't discount human stupidity or maliciousness lol. Had 3 instances where critical emails were deleted and needed to be recovered. One of those was a departing employee who deleted everything in their inbox and cleared their deleted folder. It wasn't until a month afterward that this was discovered. He thought he was doing the company a favour by clearing out the space. It wasn't malicious but definitely clueless.
-
@nashbrydges said in O365 and backups:
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
@scottalanmiller said in O365 and backups:
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
Who knows... but important production data is data, hosted by MS or not... it should be backed up is how I'm leaning.
Technically, backups aren't quite that important. The old adage that everything needs to be backed up doesn't actually hold up under scrutiny. Certainly 99.99% of things should be, but there is still that lingering .01%. Outside of tech, we don't back up too many things in life, we consider the cost and effort to outweigh the benefits. In IT, this still happens sometimes.
And then there is "what is a backup?" O365 is backed up. Maybe not to the degree or in the way that we'd want, but it is backed up to some degree. So at least part of the fear of not having a backup is already handled. And super reliable systems don't always need backups.
Example... a cheap, fragile system with a backup might lose data once ever 200 operational years. What if we built a system that was so reliable that without a backup it would only lose data once every 220 operational years? If the backups were accepted for the first system, they are unnecessary for the second.
We often see backups as a checkbox, but technically they are just a factor in resultant protection against data loss. If you get acceptable protection without them, they aren't needed.
I haven't tested the O365 backup software yet, but I do know that every single email and OneDrive account does not need to be backed up. Can you pick and choose?
I don't expect permanent data loss due to a failure that bad at Microsoft, but then again, I can't guarantee it. What they have is already enough via all their current protection tiers. But if something happens at the account level leaving those tiers inaccessible or lost, then the backup will be the only way to get it back.
With Veeam, you can pick and choose what you want to backup. Either the full user, or only OneDrive + email for the user, etc. Pretty flexible.
Good to know, thanks for confirming!
-
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
Foudn this but it's two years old:
It looks like OneDrive uses SharePoint technology and is backed up.
ODfB is just part of Sharepoint
-
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
@scottalanmiller said in O365 and backups:
MS already has backups for that scenario
You know this for sure?
Yes
-
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
Didn't you experience permanent data loss with some O365 accounts do to licensing screw-up on their part, where a backup would have been nice?
Yes, something that I point out a lot is that backups often don't account for account level problems. MS specifically has these problems, they depend totally on their account mechanisms and if anything goes wrong there, it takes out backups, redundancy and everything else, all at once.
-
@scottalanmiller said in O365 and backups:
@obsolesce said in O365 and backups:
Didn't you experience permanent data loss with some O365 accounts do to licensing screw-up on their part, where a backup would have been nice?
Yes, something that I point out a lot is that backups often don't account for account level problems. MS specifically has these problems, they depend totally on their account mechanisms and if anything goes wrong there, it takes out backups, redundancy and everything else, all at once.
This is the main reason I would be considering an O365 backup software... the question is how likely is it to happen?
-
Main reason for me to. It's like having your offsite backups stored at Bob's house, but only Bob has a key. I'd want a key, instead of having to always rely on Bob to let me in. Especially if Bob has history of messing me around.
-
@carnival-boy said in O365 and backups:
Main reason for me to. It's like having your offsite backups stored at Bob's house, but only Bob has a key. I'd want a key, instead of having to always rely on Bob to let me in. Especially if Bob has history of messing me around.
This, I feel, is an analogy of the "account risk" that I mention. Yes, Bob has a backup, but if the failure is Bob leaves, Bob hates you, or Bob forgets who you are, no amount of Bob's backups matter and the risk isn't measured in hardware failure but in a lot of soft things that are hard to predict and are totally vendor and implementation specific and can't be extrapolated from industry norms.
-
@nashbrydges said in O365 and backups:
May be true for most cases but can't discount human stupidity or maliciousness lol. Had 3 instances where critical emails were deleted and needed to be recovered. One of those was a departing employee who deleted everything in their inbox and cleared their deleted folder. It wasn't until a month afterward that this was discovered. He thought he was doing the company a favour by clearing out the space. It wasn't malicious but definitely clueless.
For me, that is exactly the reason you need a backup of O365.
That, and any sort of malicious activity, or MS screw up.
-
@brrabill said in O365 and backups:
@nashbrydges said in O365 and backups:
May be true for most cases but can't discount human stupidity or maliciousness lol. Had 3 instances where critical emails were deleted and needed to be recovered. One of those was a departing employee who deleted everything in their inbox and cleared their deleted folder. It wasn't until a month afterward that this was discovered. He thought he was doing the company a favour by clearing out the space. It wasn't malicious but definitely clueless.
For me, that is exactly the reason you need a backup of O365.
That, and any sort of malicious activity, or MS screw up.
All about putting numbers to it. It's the "real risk" of the system. But you have to determine how big that risk is and put a dollar number on it. Identifying what risks are is for the IT side of our brains, that's making a list. Evaluating that risk is for the actuary side of our brains. Take the list and put values to it to see whether they make sense to mitigate.
-
@scottalanmiller said in O365 and backups:
All about putting numbers to it. It's the "real risk" of the system. But you have to determine how big that risk is and put a dollar number on it. Identifying what risks are is for the IT side of our brains, that's making a list. Evaluating that risk is for the actuary side of our brains. Take the list and put values to it to see whether they make sense to mitigate.
For a small company, for the generally small cost of these backups, I think it's best just to do them.
-
@brrabill said in O365 and backups:
@scottalanmiller said in O365 and backups:
All about putting numbers to it. It's the "real risk" of the system. But you have to determine how big that risk is and put a dollar number on it. Identifying what risks are is for the IT side of our brains, that's making a list. Evaluating that risk is for the actuary side of our brains. Take the list and put values to it to see whether they make sense to mitigate.
For a small company, for the generally small cost of these backups, I think it's best just to do them.
The big questions being.... how much does it cost, and how much value is being stored in email instead of somewhere else?
-
Keep in mind that for SMALL shops, things like Outlook or Thunderbird will prevent most disasters by keeping a close on a local device. Not going to protect against sabotage, but that's rarely what people are paying to protect against. It will protect you against account issues or whatever. And it is basically free and often done anyway.
