Microsoft 365 backup
Protect agreed Microsoft 365 workloads independently from the live service, with the exact data covered defined by the selected backup service and agreed scope.
Backup and disaster recovery
Know how your business would recover when something goes wrong.
CompTech helps organisations turn backup into a practical recovery plan, with clear answers on what’s protected, what can be restored, how quickly it can come back and who is responsible.
Recovery confidence
Backup is only useful if you know you can recover.
A successful backup job does not automatically mean an organisation is ready for a real incident.
You need to know what is protected, how often it is backed up, how long it is retained, how quickly it can be restored and whether the recovery process has actually been tested.
CompTech helps bring those answers together so backup becomes part of a practical continuity plan rather than an assumption.
Know what is protected
Understand which servers, cloud services, Microsoft 365 data, files and critical systems are actually covered.
Know what can be recovered
Define what recovery looks like for individual files, mailboxes, systems and wider service failures.
Know how long recovery may take
Agree realistic recovery priorities rather than assuming everything can come back immediately.
Know who owns the response
Make it clear who starts recovery, who communicates with users and suppliers, and who confirms services are working again.
Where CompTech manages backup as an ongoing service, the agreed scope should make clear what is monitored, how failed backup jobs or alerts are handled, which restore work is included and which major recovery, rebuild or disaster-recovery exercises need separate scope.
Where an internal IT team is involved, responsibilities can be agreed between both teams rather than duplicated or left unclear.
Different recovery needs
Not all backup is the same.
Different systems need different recovery approaches.
Server and workload backup
Protect critical servers, virtual machines and application workloads according to their importance and recovery requirements.
Disaster recovery and business continuity
Disaster recovery focuses on restoring or resuming systems and services after a serious outage or incident. Business continuity is the wider plan for how people continue working while recovery is underway.
Microsoft 365 backup
Microsoft 365 is resilient, but resilience is not the same thing as backup.
Microsoft 365 includes service resilience and workload-specific native retention and recovery capabilities, but those are not the same as having a defined backup service and recovery plan.
Microsoft also offers Microsoft 365 Backup as a separate first-party service. It currently protects selected Exchange Online mailboxes, OneDrive accounts and SharePoint sites.
Independent third-party backup services can provide different workload coverage and recovery options, so Teams, identity and other Microsoft 365 data should never be assumed to be protected unless the selected service and agreed scope explicitly include them.
The Business and eligible Charity/Non-Profit calculators automatically include independent Microsoft 365 backup for every entered Microsoft 365 user. Wider workload coverage, retention and recovery requirements remain subject to the agreed scope.
CompTech helps define which Microsoft 365 workloads need additional protection, whether the selected first-party or third-party approach fits the requirement, how retention should be configured and how recovery would work when needed.
Keep platform management and recovery connected
See how licensing, identities, collaboration, security, backup and Copilot readiness fit into one managed Microsoft 365 platform.
Explore Microsoft 365 managementRecovery planning
Recovery needs priorities, not just copies of data.
Not every system has the same importance.
A useful recovery plan separates the services that need to come back first from the systems that can reasonably wait.
Critical first
Core systems, identity, communication and services the organisation cannot operate without.
Important next
Systems that can tolerate some disruption but still need a defined recovery route.
Lower priority
Data or services that can be restored later without creating significant operational impact.
Recovery targets depend on the organisation, service design and agreed backup platform. They should be defined around real operational needs rather than assumed.
The organisation needs to decide what downtime and data loss would be acceptable for each important service. CompTech can help translate those business priorities into the technical backup and recovery design.
Two practical targets
Recovery time and recovery point are different questions.
Both need a clear answer because returning a service quickly and limiting data loss are separate parts of recovery planning.
Recovery Time Objective
How quickly a service needs to be available again after an incident.
Recovery Point Objective
How much recent data loss the organisation can tolerate, usually expressed as a point in time.
Restore testing
Test the recovery before you need it.
A backup that has never been restored leaves too many unanswered questions.
CompTech helps organisations review whether critical data and systems can actually be recovered, whether credentials and documentation are available, and whether the recovery process still matches the current environment.
- sample restore testing
- critical-system recovery checks
- access and credentials
- documentation
- supplier dependencies
- changes to systems since the last test
Ransomware recovery
Ransomware changes the recovery question.
During ransomware or another destructive incident, the goal is not simply to restore the newest copy of the data.
The organisation needs confidence that the recovery point is clean, credentials are safe and restored systems are not immediately re-exposed to the same problem.
CompTech helps make backup and recovery part of the wider cyber security response rather than treating restore as an isolated technical task.
Separate recovery options
Onsite backup and offsite recovery should not rely on the same failure point.
Where critical systems require stronger continuity, recovery should consider what happens if the main site, server or storage platform is unavailable.
- separate backup copies
- offsite or cloud recovery
- retention and deletion controls appropriate to the selected backup service
- recovery from a different location or platform where appropriate
A practical checklist
Ten questions worth asking about your backups.
- What data and systems are actually backed up?
- How often are backups taken?
- How long are they retained?
- Which Microsoft 365 and other cloud workloads are protected by the selected backup service and agreed scope?
- Are backups separated from the systems they protect?
- Who can access or delete backup data?
- When was the last successful restore test?
- How quickly could critical systems realistically return?
- Which suppliers or credentials would be needed during recovery?
- Who owns communication and decision-making during a recovery?
Review your recovery position
Not sure whether your backups would stand up to a real incident?
Tell us what you currently protect, what systems matter most and what you are worried about losing.
We’ll help you understand where the gaps sit, what needs testing and what a sensible recovery plan should look like.