5 Reasons Microsoft 365 Backup is a Critical Service for MSPs

Managed Service Providers (MSP) are most successful when the services they offer meet a critical need for their customers, reducing the overall cost and complexity of the customers implementing and managing it themselves. If that service is “sticky,” meaning that once a customer signs up for the service, they will likely renew yearly, that’s even better. If it does all of the above at a cost that delights customers while still leaving a healthy margin for the MSP, well, that is a home run.

This, my MSP friends, is what you can have when you power your Microsoft 365 backup service with Wasabi hot cloud storage. If Microsoft 365 backup (or any backup) is currently in your portfolio of services, but you do not already use Wasabi as your backend storage target, do yourself a favor, stop reading and watch this short video.

If you’re not already offering Microsoft 365 backup service to your customers, here are five good reasons why you may want to consider doing so now:

1. Microsoft 365 has a massive user base

The COVID pandemic accelerated a trend that was already happening: the move to remote work and greater reliance on SaaS solutions like Microsoft 365 that enable work from home. Let’s face it, when it comes to productivity software, Microsoft is the 800lb gorilla in the room with a whopping 90% market share. Despite the inroads made by Google, Microsoft is the undisputed leader in this space, with more than 258 million Microsoft 365 users worldwide. Chances are a large percentage of your existing customers are also Microsoft 365 users.

2. Microsoft is not responsible for fully protecting your customers’ Microsoft 365 data

Sure, Microsoft has several native data protection features that you and your customers absolutely should leverage. However, they do not provide full backup and recovery services. In fact, they state clearly in their Shared Responsibility Model that they are not responsible for your data. Microsoft’s responsibility is to keep the service up and running. In my opinion, they are essentially an infrastructure-as-a-service provider in addition to providing software as a service. As such, they have no responsibility whatsoever for the integrity and longevity of their customers’ data, which is spelled out in their terms and conditions. This opens the doors for smart MSPs to add value to their service portfolios by offering Microsoft 365 backup and recovery services.

3. Ransomware is a problem that’s not going away anytime soon

Cybersecurity is an issue guaranteed to be top of mind for every one of your customers. According to The Long Road Ahead to Ransomware Preparedness, an Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) survey of 620 IT and cybersecurity professionals, 79% of respondent organizations reported having experienced a ransomware attack within the last year. Worse, nearly three-quarters of those organizations admitted to being financially or operationally impacted by those ransomware attacks. It’s no wonder that ransomware protection is the number one reason why companies seek out immutable backup and recovery solutions to protect both their data and IT infrastructures. Immutable backups cannot be deleted, altered, or encrypted by anyone, making them ideal for mitigating the effects of a ransomware attack. With cybersecurity threats on the rise and hundreds of millions of Microsoft 365 users worldwide, you better believe there is a pent-up and growing demand for Microsoft 365 data backup services that include Object Lock immutable storage capabilities.

4. Accidental deletions are the number one reason for data loss

Accidental deletions are not only a fact of life; they are arguably the most common cause of data loss. As I mentioned earlier, Microsoft 365 does not back up your data. Yes, they have features such as data replication and configurable retention policies, but these things won’t help your customers if the deletion isn’t discovered until after the retention period has expired. Even if they discover the mishap in time, finding and recovering those files is next to impossible without the granular restore capabilities of a robust backup and recovery solution. In a previous post, I went into further detail on this issue and laid out the pros and cons of Microsoft 365’s native data retention capabilities.

5. Many of your customers are under strict compliance mandates for data retention

More and more companies are required to comply with increasingly stringent sets of compliance mandates. Whether your customers are dealing with HIPAA ( healthcare), FINRA (finance), CJIS (criminal justice), or other heavily regulated industry information, they are required to not only store data for longer periods of time (indefinitely, in some cases), but may need the ability to access that data at a moment’s notice to address any number of requests or compliance audits. If somebody walks through your customer’s door from a regulatory agency and says, “I want to see XYZ documents,” they only have a finite period of time to deliver that data, or they will be out of compliance. So, it’s not just about having all of this Microsoft 365 data backed up; your customers need the ability to be able to locate and recall that data easily. This kind of granular search and recovery can’t be done with Microsoft’s native capabilities, but it is something that you can offer them. 

How can MSPs start offering Microsoft 365 backup services?

Now that you know more about the opportunity, here are a few resources to explore to help you take the following steps. 

This webinar I did recently with Dan Tomaszewski, host of the EverythingMSP, discusses why Microsoft 365 backup is critical and how Wasabi can help.

We have a variety of great backup and recovery solution partners to choose from. Our friends at MSP360, Veeam, Commvault, Veritas, HYCU, and Rubrik all offer fantastic solutions for backing up Microsoft 365 data.

Our new webpage has plenty of resources to show you how to get blazing-fast Microsoft 365 backups and restore while drastically lowering your total cost of ownership.

If you are not already a Wasabi channel partner, onboarding is as easy as it can be. Here are a few next steps to consider:

• Sign up as a new channel partner
• Explore the Wasabi Partner Portal to see all the great resources available to you
• Get Wasabi certified and start selling Wasabi as part of your BaaS solution

For more information, reach out to [email protected].