Microsoft Teams Backup options & their limitations

Microsoft Teams Backup options & their limitations

We will take a look at the various options of effective backup available for Microsoft Teams, with their limitations, and also talk about Kernel Microsoft Team Backup as a great solution for these challenges.

About the Microsoft Teams data types 

First and foremost, before getting into the options of backup, there are various types of data generated and stored in Microsoft Teams that need to be understood.

1. Messages: These are 1:1 chat, group chats, and channel messages. These are stored inside the Teams app and aren’t located in SharePoint or Exchange natively.
2. Shared files: Files shared across Teams lie in separate locations depending on the context. Files in private chats are kept in the sender’s OneDrive, while files shared in public channels lie in the associated SharePoint site.
3. OneNote notebooks: OneNote notebooks can be assigned to each Team channel, located in a “Site Assets” library of the Team’s SharePoint site.
4. Group mailbox messages and calendars: Every group is assigned an Office 365 Group with a corresponding group mailbox and calendar. Although these can be accessed through the Outlook app, technically speaking, they are stored in Exchange Online.

Available backup solutions 

1. Native Microsoft backup solutions: Microsoft provides some kind of retention and recovery options within Microsoft 365. However, all of these solutions are very short-term data retention mechanisms, quite limited for full backup capabilities. For instance, it can retain data for some time, but normally it becomes impossible to recover deleted information beyond that time.

2. Third-party backup solutions: Many third-party solutions provide more advanced features, such as scheduled backups or the capability of restoring data to specific points in time in line with a retention policy. These tools can also protect different data types within Teams, including chats, conversations in channels, and files shared across the platform.

Limitations of current backup solutions

Yet, even with all the available backup solutions, a few limitations exist:

• Data coverage: Not each third-party solution will back up every part of Microsoft Teams data. Some support only chats and documents, with no capability to recover changes to Teams configurations and channel settings.
• Complexity in restoration: Data restoration is a complex process, so effort and time are spent on the selective recovery of items without a dataset restoration task.
• Dependency on infrastructure: In most cases, third-party backups have a relationship with the underlying infrastructure. Any change in the infrastructure could result in failed backup and recovery.
• Cost and scalability: This is the process that is intensively costly the larger the size of data, while keeping continuously increasing backups. Besides, scaling backup solutions leading to growing needs is a pretty difficult process.

Kernel Microsoft Team Backup:

Kernel Microsoft Team Backup is a reliable solution for organizations looking to overcome the limitations of both native and third-party backup options. Here are a few features of the tool:

1. Full data backup
   • Complete data coverage: This utility offers to perform backups for all components of Teams, including Public and Private channels, 1:1 chats backup, files, notes, and group conversations. It secures every critical piece of information.
   • Data integrity: The tool maintains the original hierarchy and structure of the data.
2. Selective and incremental backup
   • Date filters: You can apply date filters to perform selective backups for precise data protection as per the specific needs.
   • Incremental backups: With full support for incremental backups, it helps to reduce redundancy.
3. Ease of use and compatibility
   • User-friendly interface: It has an easy-to-use interface that makes it easy for users to manage and perform backups with minimal technical expertise.
   • Wide compatibility: The tool is compatible with all versions of Windows OS.
4. Security and compliance
   • Modern authentication: It supports secure backup with modern authentication protocols so that data is protected against unauthorized access during the backup process.
   • Compliance support: With full compliance support to the industry requirements, it helps organizations with a secure and reliable method for backing up critical Teams data.
5. Scalability and automation
   • Support for big organizations: This software allows for large-scale backups, and this makes it perfect for organizations of any size. It also has automation features —such features ease the backup process and its overall management.

Conclusion

While there are different manual and third-party solutions for different levels of protection provided for Microsoft Teams, all have their own constraints. Being a better alternative solution, Kernel Microsoft Team Backup helps counter many common challenges associated with the backup of Microsoft Teams data.