Why Do You Need One Drive Backups?

November 17, 2020November 17, 2020 ahmed Backups, One Drive

An ability to access and work with data is a vital element of any workflow. Now, with many professionals working remotely, the role of cloud storage and collaboration tools has become even greater. Microsoft’s OneDrive 365 is one of these tools. This service allows companies to store documents in the cloud and access them easily.

No matter if you are a small local business or international enterprise, protecting your cloud data is vital for preserving your daily operations and business continuity. So let’s take a look at one of the best ways to protect OneDrive—having a backup.

Why Backup Is Vital?

“Why do I need OneDrive backup? OneDrive is a backup itself, isn’t it?” you may ask. Not exactly. Technically speaking, OneDrive is cloud storage, not a backup. Of course, by copying data from your computer to OneDrive, you give files another layer of protection. Still, a full-fledged backup has more security features than OneDrive.

Additional security functionality will protect your OneDrive files from various digital threats. Here are some of the top reasons for having a backup.

User Error

User error is more dangerous than you might have thought. This threat is responsible [for half](https://www.pcworld.com/article/129736/article.html) of all sensitive data losses. Human error may take different forms, including accidental deletion of an important file and letting malware into the corporate cloud through phishing.

Though hiring more experienced employees or improving their awareness through training will help to combat user error, these measures are not enough to eradicate this threat completely.

Backup won’t make your workers free from mistakes, yet this security measure will ensure that the lost data is recoverable. In this One Drive backup guide you’ll learn how to back up your files stored in OneDrive to prevent accidental deletion and other cases of human error. Of course, having a copy of your files doesn’t mean that your employees should be careless. Still, backups create an additional layer of protection that helps companies to reduce the negative impact of user error.

Ransomware

Ransomware, or encryption virus, is a common cybercriminals’ tool used to attack companies. Ransomware can encrypt the victim’s OneDrive files, making them inaccessible.

There are several ways for ransomware to infect OneDrive. First of all, corporate accounts can be damaged if hackers attack an admin’s account. Secondly, OneDrive can be infected during the synchronization process. Thirdly, an attack can begin if a careless user gives permissions to ransomware-infected SaaS apps. Execution of an attack may vary, but the result is the same—OneDrive files are locked.

To give get their data back, companies are often forced to pay a ransom. Of course, paying is not advised. Hackers can trick a victim into paying with no intention to release damaged data. However, refusing to pay hackers can lead to data loss. In other words, experiencing a ransomware attack unprepared is a lose-lose scenario where all victim’s actions lead to significant damages.

That’s why it’s better to prepare your systems for an attack beforehand. How? With a backup, you can roll your files back to their previous versions. This way, the damaged information can be restored. So even if an attack happens, backups would mitigate the consequences.

Compliance Requirements

Many companies have to follow the requirements of compliance regulations and standards like SOC2 or GDPR. Compliance often addresses data availability, which means that the company must be able to access its data. Of course, fulfilling this requirement is impossible if data was lost.

As mentioned above, backup is a good way to prevent data loss. That’s why backup helps companies using OneDrive and other Microsoft services to ensure that their data is available by preserving the data from loss and damage.

Diversification of Data Protection Measures

There are many great measures you can take to protect your data. Security awareness training, antivirus software, and other actions will help you to reduce the probability of data loss. However, they won’t help you to recover your data in case of an accident.

Backup, on the contrary, helps you to recover your data even if it was compromised. By adding the recovery functionality, backups help you to diversify your data protection strategy. Backups, in their turn, can and should be diversified as well.

Keeping all eggs in one basket is not the safest choice. The same goes for backup data. Having several copies of your files stored in several different locations is safer than having one copy in the same place as the original data. The embodiment of this principle is the 3-2-1 strategy, an approach that involves having three copies of your data, two of which are stored on different media, and one copy stored off-site.

OneDrive Backup Tools and Options

One of the most obvious options to back up OneDrive is to use the Backup and Sync functionality. This built-in tool allows OneDrive users to have their files copied and stored both on their computers and in the cloud. However, this option has some disadvantages. For example, the synchronization process makes OneDrive vulnerable to a ransomware attack.

To avoid the limitations of Backup and Sync, you may need a specialized OneDrive backup tool created by cybersecurity providers. In this case, you’ll have to do your research and choose a cloud backup that will match your unique needs and workflow.

How to Choose a Cloud Backup Tool for OneDrive?

There are many third-party backup tools available for companies using OneDrive. Some of the most known cloud backup solutions include Backupify, Acronis, Veeam, and SpinBackup. While choosing among various backup offerings, you have to take many things into consideration. The most important are:

Backup automation
Encryption for both [in-transit and at-rest data](https://digitalguardian.com/blog/data-protection-data-in-transit-vs-data-at-rest)
Backup frequency (several times a day is great)
The 3-2-1 backup strategy
Availability of the granular restore feature to make the recovery process faster
The choice of backup data storage location to diversify the risks
Subscription pricing and discounts for an annual plan
Compliance with data security regulations and standards