to only back up the on-premises environment, protecting only
half of the mailboxes? Remember, these mailboxes don't just
store email. They also store Teams data.
Ideally, organization should use the same backup solution and
technique to protect their on-premises and Microsoft 365
assets. This not only helps to ensure that data is protected
regardless of its location, but it also gives you the option of
moving resources to the Microsoft 365 cloud if necessary.
Backups can play a role in a planned migration to the cloud, but
they can also come in handy in times of disaster. If an
organization's on-premises Exchange Servers were damaged or
destroyed, for example, a backup could be used to move those
mailboxes that had resided on premises to the Microsoft 365
cloud.
The Shared Responsibility Model
Perhaps the best reason of all for backing up Microsoft 365 is
that Microsoft expects you to. Microsoft 365 is based around
something called the shared responsibility model. The essence
of this model is that Microsoft and its Microsoft 365 customers
both play a role in maintaining the environment.
Microsoft's primary job is to protect the Microsoft 365
infrastructure. They make sure the hardware is running
properly, and that the Microsoft 365 applications are healthy.
They also handle ongoing maintenance tasks such as version
upgrades and patch management. Conversely, Microsoft 365
customers are expected to be responsible for backing up their
own data, and that includes the data associated with Teams. If
someone in your organization accidentally deletes a file, you
can't simply call Microsoft and ask them to restore it. It's your
job to back up your own data, and to restore that data should
the need arise.
