Microsoft runs the service. Your data is your responsibility.
Microsoft 365 is built for availability, not for backup. Under Microsoft's shared responsibility model, Microsoft keeps the service running, and the data inside your tenant (the mailboxes, files, sites and conversations your business runs on) is yours to protect. The built-in safety nets are short:
- Deleted SharePoint and OneDrive files stay in the recycle bin for up to 93 days, then the built-in tools can’t restore them.
- Deleted Exchange Online items are recoverable for 14 days by default, and 30 days at most.
- OneDrive and SharePoint can roll a library back by up to 30 days, which won't help with a problem you find later.
- Retention policies and litigation holds preserve content for compliance and eDiscovery. They are not built to put a deleted mailbox or site back the way it was.
Accidental deletion, a departing employee, a sync gone wrong or a ransomware attack can all outlast those windows. Our guide to Microsoft 365 retention vs backup lists the main built-in limits, with Microsoft’s own sources.
Built for small businesses without a backup specialist
In a small business, checking backups is usually nobody’s job. CloudVision takes it on: our engineers set up your Microsoft 365 backup, check every mailbox, OneDrive, SharePoint site and Team against a 24-hour backup SLA, and fix anything that fails, 24/7. You get one plain-English email each morning instead of another console to learn. If you also use Google Workspace or QuickBooks Online, they sit in the same dashboard and the same daily report.
Every mailbox, OneDrive, SharePoint site and Team
- Exchange Online: every mailbox in your tenant.
- OneDrive: every user's OneDrive.
- SharePoint: every SharePoint site.
- Microsoft Teams: every Team.
Each one becomes a protected object in your CloudVision dashboard with its own backup status, so a failure can't hide inside a single "backup succeeded" line.
Fully managed, from your tenant’s first backup to every restore
Our engineers connect your Microsoft 365 tenant, run the first backups and confirm every mailbox, OneDrive, SharePoint site and Team is reporting in your dashboard. From then on, we run your tenant’s backup end to end:
See what was backed up, every morning
Most backup tools tell you a job ran. CloudVision tells you, object by object, whether each mailbox, OneDrive, site and Team was backed up within the last 24 hours. The CloudVision Daily Backup Report lands in your inbox every morning with your compliance score, results by service and anything that needs attention, with the full data attached as a CSV. The same view is live on the web, iOS and Android. How the compliance score works.
Microsoft 365 backup: common questions
Does Microsoft back up Microsoft 365?
Not in a way you control. Microsoft keeps the service available, but deleted items age out of the recycle bins and recoverable items folders, and Microsoft's shared responsibility model leaves protecting your data to you. CloudVision keeps an independent backup of every mailbox, OneDrive, SharePoint site and Team.
Is Office 365 backup the same as Microsoft 365 backup?
Yes. Microsoft renamed its Office 365 business plans to Microsoft 365 on 21 April 2020, and some enterprise plans still use the Office 365 name. Either way, your data lives in the same services: Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams. CloudVision backs up all four, whichever name your plan has.
Do you back up Microsoft Teams?
Yes. Every Team is a protected object in your CloudVision dashboard, checked against the same 24-hour backup SLA as your mailboxes, OneDrives and SharePoint sites.
How often is Microsoft 365 backed up?
As frequently as real time. However often a backup runs, every mailbox, OneDrive, SharePoint site and Team is also checked against a 24-hour backup SLA, so anything that falls behind is flagged and fixed.
Where is our Microsoft 365 backup data stored?
In the UK by default. You can choose Canada, the USA, Ireland, Germany, Singapore, Australia or Japan instead when we set you up. Backup data is encrypted at rest and in transit, in data centres that are ISO 27001 certified and SOC 2 Type 2 audited.
What happens when someone deletes a mailbox, file or site by mistake?
Tell us what you need back. Our team restores it from your CloudVision backup, so you don't need to dig through the Microsoft 365 admin centre or race a retention deadline.
How quickly can we be protected?
We connect your Microsoft 365 tenant in minutes, then run the first backups and confirm every mailbox, OneDrive, SharePoint site and Team is reporting in your dashboard. The first full backup takes longer for large tenants.
Who fixes a backup that fails?
We do. If a mailbox, OneDrive, SharePoint site or Team misses the 24-hour backup SLA, it’s flagged in your dashboard and in the CloudVision Daily Backup Report, and our UK team picks it up and fixes it, 24/7.