Servers
What to check when buying a server
The decisions that hurt are rarely visible on the quotation. Here is what to look at before signing.
Even in well-run environments this is the gap we find most often. Mail, files and collaboration have moved to the cloud, and nobody asked whether any of it is backed up. Being in the cloud is taken to mean being safe.
Microsoft guarantees continuity of the service. Their data centres are redundant, hardware failure does not affect you, and restoring the platform is their job.
But the data inside it is your responsibility. This is written plainly in Microsoft's own terms and is described as the shared responsibility model.
Put simply: they protect the server, you protect the file.
"Deleted items are kept for 30 days" or "there is a recycle bin" is how this conversation usually gets dismissed. Those are retention policies, not backups.
The difference shows up here:
A leaver. The licence is removed and the mailbox is deleted after a period. Six months later a contract exchange is needed and cannot be found.
Ransomware. The sync client on a user's machine uploads the encrypted files to the cloud. The cloud copy goes too.
Accidental deletion. A team channel and all its files are deleted. It takes weeks for anyone to notice.
Malicious deletion. A departing employee clears out shared areas before leaving.
When choosing a backup product, make sure all of these are included:
Also: restore must work at individual item level. Restoring an entire mailbox rarely helps; what is wanted is one e-mail.
Microsoft 365 backup costs a small amount per user per month. The annual figure is far below the cost of losing a single contract exchange.
We review your current setup free of charge and put in writing what is covered and what is not. The result is usually a surprise.
Ask us about backup and business continuity, or request a free assessment directly.
The decisions that hurt are rarely visible on the quotation. Here is what to look at before signing.
Both work. What decides it is licensing, what your backup product supports, and what your team already knows.
Running past end of support is not a technical preference — it is a compliance position, and usually not a defensible one.