Ensuring Data Integrity During Backups in Microsoft 365

It’s the last-minute scramble before you head off to enjoy your weekend, and seemingly everyone in the company suddenly needs your attention and some type of e-mail from you. You know this experience, and it is never a pleasant one, you need to search for something, and you have no idea where it could be. This is why your data backup strategy is so important; it ensures every file, message, and document is easily accessible when you need it.

But don’t just willy-nilly transfer files over without a review plan. Migrating data that is incomplete or corrupt could ultimately lead to serious negative consequences for those who might open it. It is possible that the data that you worked so hard to put into those files in the first place might become lost. It is also possible that those files could open you and your colleagues up to legal and even ethical risks as well.

Can you imagine the stress that you will feel if you end up in hot water because you didn’t take the necessary steps to keep your files secure during the backup process? You could very well find yourself in a place where you don’t even know how you will dig out of the mess that has been created. Instead, you should use the best backup tools on the market today to ensure your data integrity.

Integrity Beyond Retention in Microsoft 365

The retention of files within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem is clearly important, but true integrity within those files goes way beyond simple retention. You also have to consider the version history and accuracy of those files. I have heard it before: files are routinely transferred around without the proper attention, and now you have integrity failures.

Always ensure that every file has been treated with the utmost of care and you are diligent about maintaining the accuracy and usefulness of what you have within your databases.

Why Native Features are Not Enough

It’s awesome that Microsoft put in the time and effort necessary to create native security features its programs. However, the native features that come with Microsoft 365 are not enough on their own. Those serious about maintaining data integrity will take the extra steps beyond simple retention to keep that data safe.

After all, are you really going to rely on the internal systems established by a singular company to take care of every aspect of your backup security for you? You know better than that, and that is why you must be mindful about including some third-party resources to keep your data backups secure.

Luckily, there are great options that go beyond what Microsoft 365 offers by itself. You don’t have to solely rely on what they have come up with to keep your data backups secure.

Restore Reality Checks

Verifying that your data integrity remains solid means that you need to some of these things regularly:

• Integrity Verification – Your systems should perform automatic integrity verification checks to check that your data is intact. You should receive regular feedback on the quality of your data and be able to see it from a bird’s eye view.

• Alerts for Failed Backups – Unfortunately, fails happen when you least expect it. Murphy’s Law, right?! When that happens, you need to be alerted to it immediately. That will help you to address the issue as soon as possible after a backup fails.

Knowing where things stand and what you need to do to get everything backed up effectively and quickly is always the ideal. If you can reach this goal, then you can let your shoulders down a little and not necessarily experience the same levels of stress that you otherwise might have. Take this all very seriously and have a plan for how you will handle it.

Compliance Tie-Ins

You should also always tie in your compliance department for clarity. A few of the best practices for doing so include:

• Schedule Backup Audits - Do routine backup audits to see how well the backup policies are working. Those audits will produce real results about how effective your policies really are. This means that you can potentially see where any gaps are and if changes need to be made.

• Monitor Changes in Security and Retention Policies - You should keep an eye on every industry change to policies regarding retention and security. Some of these changes might mandate you to update your own policies.

Field Checklist

Keep your data clean and usable across your Microsoft 365 platform and any other database systems you rely on.

And, make sure you maintain audit trails and logs for everything. Tracking every piece of data protects you from losing critical information because you forgot something. Always have paperwork that you can look back upon and make notes of what you did and where your data has gone. That is critical to any healthy data backup system.

Listen, we know that it might not be your favorite thing in the world to have to try to keep track of all of this information, but as long as you have a field checklist that you can rely upon, then you don’t have to sweat that you might be forgetting something truly important.

Get Trustworthy Backups That You Can Rely On

Backups are not to be taken lightly. Every time you back up your data, you need to know that the backup actually worked and that you can get it back when you need it. The best way to do this is to build and maintain a reliable backup system. You don’t have to go into this quest alone. Rather, we are available to help you navigate how you will ultimately take care of what you need to in order to get the backup that you need to keep your systems up and running the way that they are intended to.

The good news? You can make the process fun and let us do the heavy lifting! Simply contact us today and let us help you get the backup that you deserve!