A Microsoft 365 backup solution such as SkyKick Cloud Backup provides a number of benefits both to MSP partners and their downstream end customers – the small businesses they serve.  For partners, it helps them provide a critical and highly valued service to their end customers – one that operates much like an insurance policy for critical productivity data – and which extends Microsoft native data retention policies. Specifically, it gives these partners a powerful backup tool for key productivity assets used by small businesses – including Exchange Online, SharePoint and OneDrive and the collaboration tools such as Microsoft 365 Groups and Microsoft Teams. Small business customers can thus quickly and accurately recover from unfortunate data loss incidents involving this productivity data with minimal disruption, mitigating possible data loss costs.

SkyKick Cloud Backup is a market-leading Microsoft 365 backup solution for small businesses. Its backup scope includes the complete set of Microsoft 365 productivity data that small businesses rely on to collaborate, communicate and operate efficiently, from Exchange Online information (mail, calendars, contacts, notes, etc.) to SharePoint libraries and data, OneDrive files and folders, and data stored and used by Microsoft 365 Groups and Microsoft Teams.

SkyKick Cloud Backup is a premium data protection service for Microsoft 365, giving partners a powerful tool to help small businesses quickly and accurately recover from productivity data loss. Its differentiating features as an Microsoft 365 backup solution are:

• Comprehensive backup coverage across the Microsoft 365 portfolio – including the latest collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Groups 

• Ability to offer unlimited backup storage and retention – including deleted users 

• Powerful search and restore capabilities to quickly recover from data loss 

• Industry-leading security and privacy policy support – HIPAA and GDPR compliance at no extra charge 

• Full cloud-to-cloud solution built exclusively on industry-leading public cloud provider Microsoft

SkyKick Cloud Backup operates adjacently, but distinctly from an Microsoft 365 subscription. It is developed by SkyKick but operated and brought to market by partner MSPs, who offer this as an additional service to their small business customers. As a fully managed cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS), it operates seamlessly in the background for Microsoft 365 subscribers, without the need for any onsite hardware or software. All backup data is stored in a secure and encrypted state by SkyKick on Microsoft Azure, its exclusive public cloud infrastructure provider.

There is no limit to how much user mailbox data is backed up in SkyKick Cloud Backup, nor is there a time limit to how long it is retained, provided your customers maintain an active subscription.

Using cloud-based services can offer customers significant advantages with regards to scalability, cost, productivity, and efficiency, among others. However, the cloud still poses security risks for users, as viruses, ransomware, and other data breach risks can still impact user data in the cloud. In fact, analysts point to the fact that 32% of businesses are impacted by data loss in the cloud at some point, with the most common causes being user error (64% of cases) and malicious attacks (20%).

Yes, companies who use the cloud are still at risk of losing data. As reported by the IT Compliance Policy Group, an industry research firm, 32% of businesses are impacted by data loss in the cloud. Data loss can occur from any number of causes – from accidental deletion to malicious attacks like viruses and ransomware. Having data in the cloud doesn’t necessarily protect you from these threats.

When small businesses suffer data loss, this often has a detrimental impact on their operations, from lost productivity, replacement hardware or software, to even payments to recover data from ransomware. According to a recent study by Kaspersky Labs, the average cost for a data breach incident in 2018 amounted to $120,000 for small businesses, a 36% increase over the prior year.

SkyKick Cloud Backup operates adjacently, but distinctly from a Microsoft 365 subscription. It is developed by SkyKick but operated and brought to market by partner MSPs, who offer this as an additional service to their small business customers.  MSPs leverage the latest industry and Microsoft security protocols – such as MFA – to securely connect their customer Microsoft 365 subscriptions with the SkyKick backup functionality.

SkyKick Cloud Backup retains all data from deleted users. The data can be restored to a public or shared mailbox, or to another user.

The time it takes to restore varies on the amount of data restored. Individual items can take as little as a couple of minutes while full mailboxes can take multiple hours depending on how much data is being restored.

Yes, SkyKick conforms to all HIPAA requirements of a Business Associate. Once a covered entity completes and signs our Business Associate Agreement (BAA) SkyKick can create a HIPAA-compliant Cloud Backup subscription. The BAA contains the elements specified at 45 CFR 164.504(e), including: 

• A description of the permitted and required uses of protected health information by SkyKick. 

• The provision that SkyKick will not use or further disclose the protected health information other than as permitted or required by the contract or as required by law 

• Requirements to use appropriate safeguards to prevent a use or disclosure of the protected health information other than as provided for by the contract.

Partners can try SkyKick Cloud Backup for free on their own Microsoft 365 tenant by registering on SkyKick.com and then requesting an Internal Use Rights (IUR) subscription. We highly encourage this as a first step for any MSP interested in learning more about SkyKick Cloud Backup.