Small Business Cloud
Keep important business information available and recoverable
Bring your cloud apps, backup and recovery into one practical plan, built around the information you can’t afford to lose.
Or go straight to
- What information matters most
- Where it lives today
- Whether a separate backup exists
- How long you could work without it
Cloud productivity with clear ownership
Set it up around how your team works
Pick licences, sign-in, file sharing and security settings to suit your team. Then agree who adds users, approves access, removes leavers and reviews privileged accounts.
Size licences to real use, so each one earns its place in the budget.
Choose around the team
- Licensing
- Identity
- File collaboration
- Security settings
Agree who
- Creates new users
- Approves access to files and systems
- Removes leavers promptly
- Reviews privileged and administrator accounts
Synchronisation is not always backup
A backup design you can actually restore from
Cloud platforms can keep old versions or deleted items, but what they keep, and for how long, may not match what you’d need to recover. A good backup design sets out what’s protected, how often it’s copied, how long it’s kept, where copies are stored and how restores are tested.
- 01
Protect
Work out which files, email, shared data, apps and settings are critical.
- 02
Retain
Set how long data is kept around legal, operational and customer needs, not a generic default.
- 03
Recover
Decide how much data you could lose and how fast you need it back, then test realistic recovery scenarios.
- 04
Review
Keep an eye on failures, access, storage growth, licences and recovery results.
Syncing, retention settings or a recycle bin aren’t automatically a complete backup.
Plan for common failure scenarios
Decide what you’d do before it happens
The right response may combine platform controls, independent backup, endpoint protection on each device, identity security and documented recovery steps.
- Platform controls
- Independent backup
- Endpoint protection
- Identity security
- Documented recovery procedures
- Accidental deletionA file, folder or mailbox removed by mistake.
- Compromised accountsSomeone else gets into one of your team’s accounts.
- Device lossA laptop or phone is lost, stolen or stops working.
- MalwareFiles are encrypted or damaged by malicious software.
- Platform outageThe cloud service itself is unavailable for a period.
- Lost administrator accessThe only person with admin rights leaves or is unavailable.
Know the recovery objective
Two numbers that shape the design
Recovery objectives are design inputs, not guarantees, unless they’re explicitly contracted and tested.
Recovery point objective
How much recent data your business could afford to lose.
Recovery time objective
How quickly a service needs to be back up and running.
A proposal states protection scope, retention, recovery objectives and test frequency as separate items, so you can see exactly what is and isn’t covered.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Plain answers about backup, recovery, testing and migration.
Is Microsoft 365 already backed up?
Microsoft 365 includes resilience and retention features, but they may not meet every business recovery requirement. Check your data, how it could be deleted, retention and the restore process before you decide whether you need extra backup.
What’s the difference between backup and disaster recovery?
Backup makes copies of your data that you can recover. Disaster recovery is broader: the process, systems, dependencies and people you need to get the business running again after a serious disruption.
How often should we test a restore?
It depends on your business risk and how often things change. Test a representative sample of files, users and systems, record the result and fix any failures. Don’t assume a successful backup job means recovery will work.
Can you migrate our email and files?
We may be able to, after a discovery review of your current set-up. The proposal should define the source and target, identity, data volume, permissions, sequence, testing, how users are kept informed, the switch-over and rollback.
Related services
Keep the whole team working
Your cloud tools rely on a dependable connection, and your team needs them in the office, on the road and on the phone.
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Business Internet
Internet chosen around your location, team size, cloud apps, support needs and what downtime would cost you.
Check business availability -
Business Mobile
Plans and coverage for your team, matched to how they actually use their phones.
Compare mobile options -
Business Voice
Numbers, call flows and cloud calling that get customers through to the right person.
Review my call setup
Planning a wider migration, disaster recovery or hosting? See Cloud and Data Centre for Corporate, and read how we handle information in our Privacy Policy.
Continuity review
Start with a short continuity review
Tell us what information matters, where it lives now and how long you could work without it. We’ll point out the gaps and suggest next steps from the live service catalogue.
Helpful to have ready
- The services you use today, such as Microsoft 365, another cloud suite, a file server or a line-of-business application
- Number of users and shared mailboxes
- The information that would hurt most to lose
- Whether you have a separate backup today
- How quickly you’d need essential information restored
Please don’t include passwords, administrator details or system configuration in an enquiry. A summary is enough to start.
Already with us?
Tell us who’s affected and what’s stopped, so we can prioritise within your service terms.