With Microsoft Ignite and the UK’s Future Decoded behind us, Jay and I are back for the latest episode of the All About 365 podcast.

On today’s show we got together to discuss a topic that comes up regularly – should you backup Office 365? There’s a variety of views on the topic and we’ve tried to provide a little balance (especially as many people couldn’t access the service for some hours today due to an Azure Multi Factor Authentication issue).

We weigh up some benefits, like –

• The potential to recover from Ransomware – but can Office 365 do this better using native approaches?
• Satisfying internal proponents of FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt) – that hackers or even your own employees might destroy your data irreversibly
• Industry and government regulations driving the need for traditional backups
• Contractual requirements your organisation needs to meet
• A view that it might be a risk to keep “all your eggs in one basket”

But we also consider the other side of the coin – the downsides and limitations of backup products –

• How will you actually recover the data? Will any backup solution actually meet your needs?
• APIs are not available for all of Office 365, It’s not limited to Exchange Online and SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, what about Planner, Teams and Stream
• If you really do need “belt and braces”, should you instead consider a continuity solution, like those provided by Mimecast and Proofpoint?

You’ll find Episode 19 above, and at our our podcast site, on iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher and you can subscribe with your favourite podcast app using the feed. If you’ve got any suggestions for what you’d like to hear on the next shows, let us know. You’ll find us on Twitter as @SteveGoodman & @jaywynn