A useful Microsoft 365 backup conversation starts with three things: what is protected, what you could recover and who would do it. A product name or a reassuring “yes, we have backups” does not answer all three.
For a business using Microsoft 365, the aim is to turn that broad answer into a clear recovery plan. Here are the questions to work through with your IT partner.
Start with the accounts and sites your team relies on
Think about where the work actually lives: the shared documents used by a project team, an individual's OneDrive files or the mailbox holding customer correspondence. List the important information and who owns it before comparing backup options.
Microsoft's own Microsoft 365 Backup product can protect selected SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts and Exchange mailboxes. Its availability does not show which of your accounts or sites have been added to a protection policy. Ask for the current scope, including exclusions and how new staff or sites are added.
Ask what a restore would look like
Use a situation your team would recognise. Someone deletes a file before an important deadline. A shared site needs to return to an earlier state. A mailbox needs to be recovered after unwanted changes. Ask which of these your arrangement covers, how a recovery point is chosen and where the recovered information would go.
The detail matters. Microsoft documents different restore options for its supported workloads, including a site or account restore and mailbox item recovery. Confirm the options available in your actual product and configuration, rather than assuming every system can recover the same thing in the same way.
| Question | A useful answer includes |
|---|---|
| What is protected? | The covered mailboxes, OneDrive accounts and SharePoint sites, plus any exclusions. |
| How far back can we go? | The configured recovery window and the recovery points available for the information you need. |
| Who can request a restore? | A named business approver, the person carrying out the work and the incident contact process. |
| Has recovery been checked? | A record of what was restored in an agreed exercise, what worked and any follow-up actions. |
Check the settings and the responsibilities
Ask where the protection policy is recorded and who checks that it still matches your business. A new shared site or a departing employee is a good reason to review the scope. Keep the recovery window and any exclusions in the same record so you are not relying on a conversation from last year.
Then discuss an appropriate recovery exercise. Agree what can be tested safely, who approves it and what evidence will be kept. Record the outcome and anything that needs attention. The aim is a practical understanding of the recovery process before a real incident makes it urgent.
Bring the questions to B.I.T
The B.I.T Collective works with Microsoft 365 alongside Google Workspace, servers and NAS environments. Its security and backup services and IT partnership plans provide a starting point for discussing your existing arrangements.
Backup, recovery and security inclusions vary by plan, so confirm the product, protected systems and responsibilities in your proposal. Bring your list of important accounts and sites, the current arrangements you know about and the gaps you want explained. Talk to B.I.T about your requirements to work through that scope.
For product-specific detail, see the Microsoft 365 Backup overview. This guide helps you prepare the questions; the answer needs to fit your business.