When organizations experience data loss, the cost of not being able to run for a period of time can be massive. As such, most organizations that value their data should consider a third-party backup solution to ensure their data is fully protected and available no matter the scenario.

Let’s have a look at some of these scenarios where extended data production can ensure the availability of information.

1. User Error. Accidents happen—we’re human after all— which is why the most common data loss scenarios involve user error.

Users can accidentally delete documents, emails—and even an entire workspace (Group, Team, or SharePoint site) if they are an Owner. That’s why Microsoft has effective out-of-the-box tools such as version control and the recycle bin to address these mistakes.

If a document has been deleted within 93 days, an email has been deleted within 14
days (or up to 30 days depending on your settings), or a workspace has been deleted within 30 days, you can simply restore these items from the recycle bin.

Third-party backup solutions allow you to extend these protections so you can restore Office 365 data even if it has been deleted for longer than 93 days.

2. Admin Error: Office 365 administrators and IT professionals are also human, and thus just as capable of making the occasional error.

One scenario could include messing up the permissions to a workspace. A third-party backup solution will be needed to quickly restore those permissions.

Another scenario would be forgetting or failing to set the proper retention setting—for example, not properly retaining a mailbox of an employee who has departed the organization.

After the 30-day window (and its almost always after), if a user needed to access that mailbox, or that data was needed for record/compliance purposes, a third-party backup solution would be required.

3. Malicious Insiders: On occasion, a disgruntled user or administrator may attempt to delete, corrupt or otherwise remove access to important data within Office 365. In most scenarios, the data can be easily restored using native tools.

However, if that malicious insider—either a user that is an Owner of a workspace or an administrator— “rolls back” or restores a SharePoint site from a previous point in time, a third-party backup solution is required to “move forward” and restore the data that has been created since that restore point.

Want to learn about two other common data loss scenarios? Download the full ebook.