Does Microsoft 365 back up my data? (No — and here is why that matters)

This is the single most common dangerous assumption we encounter. It is worth being blunt about it: Microsoft does not back up your data for you.

Availability is not backup

Microsoft is responsible for keeping the service running — for making sure that when you go to Outlook or SharePoint, it is there. That is availability, and Microsoft is very good at it. It is also all they promise.

What Microsoft explicitly does not protect you from is you. Under their shared responsibility model, your data is your responsibility. Which means:

• Accidental deletion. Someone deletes a SharePoint library. The recycle bin holds it for a limited window, and then it is gone.
• Malicious deletion. A leaver empties their mailbox on the way out.
• Ransomware. Encrypted files sync obediently to the cloud, replacing the good copies.
• Retention policy gaps. A policy silently ages out data you assumed was kept forever.
• Deactivated accounts. Remove the licence, and after the grace period the mailbox goes with it.

“But there is a recycle bin”

There is, and it will save you from Tuesday’s mistake. It will not save you from a mistake made in March that you discover in September, or from a compromised admin account that deleted the recycle bin too. Retention windows are measured in days and weeks. Real backup is measured in years, and it is under your control, not the attacker’s.

What proper backup looks like

• An independent copy of Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams, held separately from the tenancy
• Point-in-time restore, so you can go back to before the damage rather than to yesterday
• Granular recovery — a single mailbox, a single file — not just a full restore
• Backups that are actually tested, because an untested backup is a hope, not a plan

The same applies to Google Workspace and to Microsoft Azure. We cover all three.

The test to run today

Ask whoever looks after your IT one question: if a member of staff permanently deleted a folder in SharePoint six months ago, could we get it back? If the answer involves a pause, you have found your gap.

See cloud backup and disaster recovery, or read about how we manage cloud and Microsoft 365.