OneDrive Backup: A Guide for MSPs and IT Professionals

Introduction

Are you reading this to safeguard your OneDrive, for compliance reasons, or because you’ve had an incident? This article highlights six key factors to consider when selecting a OneDrive backup solution.

This guide has two key goals. First, it aims to help IT professionals and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) make an informed choice when selecting a dedicated backup solution for OneDrive. Second, it provides strategies for explaining to clients and stakeholders the value and necessity of backing up OneDrive data. Explaining this importance to clients can be challenging, and MSP360 is here to support IT professionals and MSPs in finding the right arguments and examples.

Why Back Up OneDrive: Threats and Risks

For any organization, ensuring business continuity relies on protecting data against various potential threats. While OneDrive offers convenience and accessibility, it does not fully safeguard against data loss scenarios that could disrupt operations. Backing up OneDrive data is essential to prevent costly interruptions and to maintain compliance with regulatory standards. Below are the main risks and challenges that underscore the need for a dedicated OneDrive backup strategy:

• Accidental Deletion and Unclear UX: Risk of accidental deletions, especially due to OneDrive’s unclear UX, where users might inadvertently delete cloud files thinking they’re removing only local copies.
• Ransomware and Malware Threats: The danger of malicious attacks that can encrypt or delete files, compromising both local and cloud storage.
• Data Corruption Because of App Defects: Data corruption from syncing issues, software bugs, or third-party app errors that inadvertently alter or delete files. Just recently, a bug in Microsoft Word caused it to delete some DOCX files after saving them.
• Insider Threats: Potential risk from users intentionally or accidentally deleting or altering files, especially during transitions or offboarding.
  Further reading How Zero Trust Can Help MSPs Reduce Security Threats
• Compliance and Regulatory Requirements: Although not direct data threats, failing to meet data retention and security regulations can lead to significant business risks, including fines and legal action.

How Proper OneDrive Backup Solutions Work

When it comes to protecting your OneDrive data, there are only two reliable options: develop a custom backup solution on your own or adopt a ready-made product. At MSP360, we’ve spent thousands of hours over the course of many years refining our backup solutions, and we’re ready to share our experience and expertise with you.

When evaluating a OneDrive backup solution, there are critical features that ensure effective data protection and recovery, along with maintainability and cost-effectiveness. Let’s review each of these features and see how they are implemented in MSP360 Managed Backup for Microsoft 365.

1. Regular and Fully Automated Backups

Of course, we need the backups to be regular and fully automated. IT professionals must only spend minimal time on configuring the system once, adding new users, and resolving incidents, should they happen. In contrast, any system that requires IT professionals to run scripts or review backup state on a regular basis, is prone to be time-consuming and cost-ineffective.

MSP360 Managed Backup for Microsoft 365 can be set up and running within minutes. To add a new account to back up, the administrator only needs to enable it in the Service Dashboard. Additionally, the administrator can set up the user auto-enabling feature, which automatically adds new accounts to the backup schedule. Account data will be backed up at least twice a day automatically, with no manual intervention required from the administrator.

2. Flexible Retention Policies and Immutable Storage

Unlike OneDrive’s default limits for file revisions and recycle bin, an advanced backup solution should have flexible retention policies. This extended retention capability provides long-term access to older file versions and deleted files, which is crucial for compliance and data recovery months and even years after changes occur.

To counteract ransomware attacks and unauthorized deletions, a top-tier solution includes immutable storage. This feature ensures that backed-up data cannot be modified or deleted, providing a “last line of defense” in case of a security incident.

MSP360 Managed Backup allows to configure retention policies with flexible options. It also supports multiple immutable storage options. Combined, these two features allow for setting up ransomware-proofed backups.

3. Granular Recovery Capabilities

A robust solution should offer flexible recovery options, allowing users to restore anything from a single file to an entire OneDrive account. This level of granularity is essential for handling specific recovery scenarios without creating unnecessary data duplication or delays. To cover the full range of restoration needs within an organization, this flexibility should include:

• The option to restore data to the original or a different account, as needed.
• The ability to restore files and folders to a specified previous version.

MSP365 Managed Backup has all these recovery options and even more. Users can view file contents in the Dashboard, recover files to OneDrive, or download them directly to their workstations. This flexibility allows them to restore exactly what they need, whenever they need it, and to their destination of choice.

4. Independent Infrastructure

A proper backup solution should operate independently of OneDrive and the organization’s infrastructure. This includes running on separate servers, using a unique network connection to OneDrive, and relying on distinct storage locations. This independence prevents any internal disruptions or security breaches from impacting the backup schedule or stored data. It also eliminates the need for IT engineers to monitor and maintain the backup service and its connection to OneDrive.

For instance, MSP360 Managed Backup for Microsoft 365 has a Service Dashboard maintained by MSP360. This dashboard connects directly to OneDrive and storage providers, freeing customers from managing their own dashboards.

5. Advanced Security and Access Control

A reliable enterprise-scale backup solution must have high-level security features, including encryption, access controls, and multi-factor authentication. It should also provide flexible access permissions to ensure that only verified personnel can read, modify, or delete backups.

MSP360 Managed Backup uses encryption to transfer and store backup data. Service Dashboard access is protected by multi-factor authentication and SSO options. There are flexible settings for data access and restoration, for example, allowing or forbidding domain administrators to read the backed up file contents and restore files.

Further reading Two-Factor Authentication with MSP360 Mobile App for iOS and Android

6. Scalability and Observability

The OneDrive backup solution made for MSPs and businesses should easily scale to accommodate growing data and user counts without significant reconfiguration. It should have observability tools, such as centralized dashboards, automated alerts, and detailed reports, to allow IT teams to monitor the backup status and quickly address any issues across large organizations or multiple clients.

The Service Dashboard of MSP360 Managed Backup for Microsoft 365 is designed to accommodate a growing number of users and organisations. User accounts and their data are organized by domains (tenants), and administrators can use the reports and audit logs to quickly discover and address any problems.

Overview of MSP360 Managed Backup for Microsoft 365

Now that we’ve discussed the key aspects of an effective OneDrive backup solution, let’s revisit how MSP360 Managed Backup for Microsoft 365 addresses these challenges:

1. Regular and Fully Automated Backups.
   MSP360 Managed Backup is easy to set up and fully automated. New accounts are automatically added to the backup schedule, and data is backed up at least twice a day, without requiring manual intervention.
2. Flexible Retention Policies and Object Lock.
   MSP360 allows for customizable retention policies, keeping older versions and deleted files. Object Lock (Immutability) protects backups from ransomware and unauthorized deletions, ensuring data is secure.
3. Granular Recovery Capabilities.
   The solution offers flexible recovery, allowing users to restore specific files or entire accounts, either to the original or a different account, and to any earlier version.
4. Independent Infrastructure.
   MSP360’s Managed Backup operates independently of OneDrive and your internal systems, ensuring no disruptions affect backup schedules or data, with the Service Dashboard fully managed by MSP360.
5. Advanced Security and Access Control.
   Data is encrypted and protected by multi-factor authentication. Access controls allow administrators to set permissions for who can read, modify, or delete backup data, ensuring only authorized personnel can make changes.
6. Scalability and Observability.
   MSP360 scales easily as your organization grows, with detailed audit logs, automated alerts, and centralized dashboards that provide full visibility into backup status across large organizations.

Conclusion

Backing up OneDrive data is not just an option but a crucial step in ensuring business continuity and safeguarding valuable data. While OneDrive offers many benefits, it lacks the comprehensive data protection that organizations need to protect against accidental deletions, ransomware, data corruption, and compliance risks. A dedicated backup solution fills these gaps by providing secure, reliable, and flexible data recovery options that are essential for uninterrupted operations and regulatory compliance.

If you’re looking for secure data protection for Microsoft 365 with centralized management and support for all core Microsoft 365 components, consider MSP360 Managed Backup. Once you sign up, you get a 15-day free trial with full functionality and immediate access to the control panel. Use your own cloud storage or take advantage of 1 TB of free trial storage from MSP360 for 30 days.

Nick Volynkin

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