Microsoft 365 Backup for Maryland, DC & Delaware businesses
Microsoft protects their infrastructure. They don't protect your data. Independent backup of Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams, stored separately from your tenant, with fast point-in-time recovery.
Microsoft doesn't back up your Microsoft 365 data
Most businesses assume their Microsoft 365 subscription includes data backup. It doesn't. Microsoft is responsible for keeping the M365 service running. Protecting the data inside it is your responsibility.
It's spelled out in Microsoft's Services Agreement and reinforced across their documentation: M365 has retention windows, recycle bins, and limited recovery tools, but those aren't backup. They expire, they can be bypassed by a deletion, and they offer no protection against ransomware that encrypts files synced through OneDrive or SharePoint.
DDSystems closes that gap with independent, third-party backup of your entire M365 tenant, stored separately from Microsoft's infrastructure.
"Microsoft already backs up my data."
The most common assumption we hear, and one of the most dangerous. Microsoft's shared responsibility model is explicit: they protect the platform; you protect your data.
When data is deleted (intentionally or not), corrupted, encrypted by ransomware, or lost during a license change, Microsoft's built-in tools are limited and time-bounded. Once they expire, the data is gone.
What Microsoft's built-in tools can't protect against
Recycle bins and retention policies aren't backup. Here are the scenarios that catch businesses without a third-party backup off guard.
Permanent deletion past retention
Recycle bins empty after 93 days by default. Once that window closes on a deleted mailbox, SharePoint site, or OneDrive folder, Microsoft has no way to get it back.
Ransomware in cloud files
When ransomware encrypts files synced through OneDrive or SharePoint, those encrypted versions replicate to the cloud. Microsoft's tools can roll back limited versions; they aren't designed to recover from a full encryption event.
Departing employees
When an employee leaves and their license is removed, their mailbox and OneDrive enter a 30-day deletion window. Miss the offboarding step, and the data is permanently gone.
Mailbox & file corruption
Corrupt mailboxes, broken SharePoint sites, malformed metadata. Microsoft Support can sometimes help, sometimes can't. A third-party backup lets you restore from before the corruption with one click.
Accidental overwrites
Someone replaces a file with the wrong version, or a sync error overwrites days of work. Office's built-in version history is helpful but not designed for full restoration to a specific historical date.
Malicious admin actions
A compromised admin account, a disgruntled employee with elevated rights, or a misconfigured retention policy can purge data permanently. Microsoft can't reverse intentional admin-level changes.
Full coverage across every Microsoft 365 workload
If your team uses it inside Microsoft 365, we back it up. Independent of Microsoft, recoverable to any point in time.
Exchange Online
Complete protection for the corporate email environment. Mailboxes, archive mailboxes, shared mailboxes, public folders, and all related metadata.
- User and shared mailbox backup
- Calendar events and recurring meetings
- Contacts, distribution lists, and groups
- Granular item-level restore (a single email, an entire mailbox, or anything in between)
SharePoint Online
Full SharePoint protection scales with your collaboration footprint. Site collections, individual lists, document libraries, and the permissions structure that ties them together.
- Full site collection backup
- Document libraries with version history
- Custom lists and metadata
- Permissions and group memberships
OneDrive for Business
OneDrive's mobility is also its biggest data risk. We protect against accidental deletion, malicious deletion, sync corruption, and ransomware encryption across every user's drive.
- Per-user OneDrive backup
- File version history retained independently
- Shared file and folder structure preserved
- Recovery after license removal or account deletion
Microsoft Teams
Teams isn't just chat. It's a sprawling data store of channel conversations, 1-on-1 chats, shared files, and call records. We back up the entire surface.
- Team channels and channel chat history
- 1-on-1 and group chats
- Team document libraries and SharePoint-backed sites
- Call records, recordings, and shared files
Backup that lives outside your tenant
The defining feature of real M365 backup: the data lives somewhere Microsoft (and attackers) can't reach. If your tenant is compromised, your backup isn't. If a malicious admin purges mailboxes, the snapshots survive. If ransomware encrypts your OneDrive, the offline copies stay clean.
- Independent storage destination. Backup data is stored separately from your M365 tenant, not in another folder inside it.
- Automated scheduled backups. Daily or more frequent, depending on your data change rate. No manual intervention required.
- Encrypted at rest and in transit. AES-256 encryption with managed key infrastructure.
- Granular point-in-time restore. Recover a single email from last Tuesday, an entire SharePoint site from before the corruption, or a departed employee's full OneDrive years later.
What independent backup delivers beyond Microsoft
Real backup unlocks restore capabilities that built-in M365 tools weren't designed for.
Ransomware resilience
Backups stored outside the tenant are unreachable by attackers who compromise an M365 account. When ransomware hits OneDrive or SharePoint, you have a clean copy to restore from.
Fast, granular recovery
Need a single email from 8 months ago, an entire ex-employee's mailbox, or a SharePoint site from before someone reorganized it? Point-in-time restore handles all three.
Compliance & retention
Long-term retention aligned with regulatory requirements (HIPAA, SOX, FINRA, GDPR). Survives license changes, employee turnover, and any policy changes Microsoft might make to native retention tools.
Common questions about M365 backup
Doesn't Microsoft already back up my data?
What does M365 backup cost?
How fast can data be restored?
Where is the backup data stored?
Does this cover ex-employees' data?
Can backup help with cyber insurance?
"This IT company has taken care of our needs for more than 8 years now and we couldn't be happier. They respond quickly, know what they are doing, and I would highly recommend them."
Make sure your Microsoft 365 data isn't your IT plan's blind spot
Schedule a free M365 backup assessment. We'll audit your current tenant's retention exposure, identify the data most at risk, and recommend the right backup engagement for your business.