Data Management

You Absolutely Need To Back Up Your Cloud Services Like Office 365

January 20, 2026

Thomas Fox is president of Tech Experts, southeast Michigan’s leading small business computer support company.

Most businesses today rely heavily on Microsoft 365 for email, documents, calendars, and collaboration. It’s the backbone of day-to-day operations.

Because Microsoft has massive data centers and strong uptime, many people assume their data is automatically “fully backed up.” That’s a dangerous assumption.

Microsoft 365 runs on a shared responsibility model. Microsoft does a great job keeping the platform running, but protecting your data is still your responsibility. In other words, they keep the lights on – but what happens to your files, emails, and Teams data is ultimately on you.

Yes, Microsoft includes some built-in safety nets. Things like file versioning in OneDrive and SharePoint, recycle bins that typically keep deleted items for up to three months, and basic retention policies can help recover from simple mistakes. Accidentally delete a file or overwrite a document? You may be able to get it back – if you catch it in time.

That “if” is the problem. Once those retention windows expire, your data is gone. There’s no rewind button. And these tools aren’t designed for full, point-in-time restores or long-term archiving across your entire environment.

Human error alone makes this risky. Someone deletes the wrong folder. An email with an important attachment is purged. A departing employee’s mailbox is removed before something critical is discovered.

These things happen every day, often without anyone realizing it until it’s too late.

Security threats raise the stakes even higher. Ransomware and account takeovers increasingly target Microsoft 365 environments through phishing and stolen credentials.

Even with good security controls in place, breaches still happen. When attackers encrypt or delete cloud data, Microsoft’s native tools don’t always provide a clean, fast way to roll everything back.

Then there are outages. While rare, Microsoft 365 service disruptions do occur. When access is interrupted, organizations without independent backups may find themselves completely stuck, unable to retrieve email, files, or records when they need them most.

Compliance requirements add another layer. Industries governed by HIPAA, GDPR, or financial regulations often need longer retention, audit trails, and reliable recovery options. Microsoft’s built-in tools help, but they’re usually not enough on their own.

That’s where third-party Microsoft 365 backups come in. Dedicated backup solutions capture your data regularly, store it independently, and let you restore exactly what you need when you need it. They’re affordable, easy to automate, and dramatically reduce risk.

Bottom line: Microsoft 365 is an excellent productivity platform, but it is not a complete backup solution. If your data matters to your business, relying on built-in tools alone is a gamble you don’t need to take.

Five Simple Ways To Keep Your Business Data Clean

September 23, 2025

Data is everywhere, and if you are not utilizing it to your advantage, you are missing out.

It is found in emails, customer profiles, inventory systems, or basically throughout your entire workflow. But relying on outdated or inaccurate information can lead to confusion, slow down your team, and ultimately cost you a lot of money.

With the right IT partner and these simple steps, you can keep everything clean and running smoothly.

Decide what info actually matters

Identify the key data that keeps your business running smoothly, like customer contacts, order details, or payment terms.

Then, create simple guidelines your team can easily follow. When everyone uses the same format, it keeps things organized without making it complicated.

Show your team the right way to do it

Most data errors occur when people aren’t sure what’s expected of them.

Rather than overwhelming your team with lengthy manuals, provide a simple, clear guide. How should names be formatted? What’s the correct way to enter addresses?

A brief, straightforward session without jargon can make a big difference in maintaining consistency.

Use smart tools to prevent errors

Some mistakes can be caught the moment they happen. You just need the right tools. Use form validations so emails, dates, and numbers follow the right format. Then make certain fields required, like phone numbers or email addresses. If your CRM allows it, set up automatic checks for common errors.

Tidy things up often

Don’t wait too long to clean up your data. A quick monthly review helps you spot duplicates, fix mistakes, and update old info before it creates bigger issues.

Keep your documentation updated

Things change fast with new systems, tools, and team members.

That’s why it helps to keep a simple note on where your data comes from, who handles it, and how it should be used.

Building A Smart Data Retention Policy: What Your Small Business Needs To Keep (And Delete)

August 25, 2025

Running a business today means juggling more data than ever.

Employee files, vendor contracts, financial records, customer emails, and all those backup files – they pile up quickly. And unless you have a system in place to manage all that information, it can start to feel overwhelming fast.

In fact, a recent study found that nearly three-quarters of business leaders have delayed or avoided making decisions simply because the data felt too overwhelming to sort through. That’s a lot of missed opportunities and wasted time.

The solution? A clear, practical data retention policy. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to be consistent. At its core, a good retention policy helps you figure out what data to keep, what can be safely deleted, and when it’s time to make that call. And it’s not just about cleaning house – it’s about protecting your business, reducing risk, and saving money.

Why is this important? For starters, there are compliance rules – both local and industry-specific – that require certain documents and records to be retained for a set number of years.

If you’re ever audited or involved in a legal dispute, having the right information available (and easily accessible) can make a huge difference.

Then there’s security. Storing everything forever might seem harmless, but old data can become a liability. The more information you hold onto, the more attractive your systems become to hackers – and the harder it is to protect everything properly.

Organizing your digital files and archiving or deleting what you no longer need is a smart way to reduce risk.

It also makes your systems faster and easier to manage. Imagine trying to run your business with a file cabinet stuffed full of every document you’ve ever handled. It’s no different in the digital world. Removing outdated or unnecessary files frees up space, improves performance, and makes it easier to find the data you need day to day.

Creating a data retention policy starts with understanding what kinds of data your business creates and where it all lives – on servers, in cloud apps, in email inboxes, and maybe even on individual computers. Once you know that, you can start to decide how long each type of information should be kept, who’s responsible for managing it, and what happens to it over time.

You don’t need to go it alone, either. There are tools that can help automate the process and professionals (like us) who can help guide you through it.

Think of your data like your office closet – if you never clean it out, eventually you won’t be able to find anything. A well-thought-out retention policy turns digital clutter into a well-organized, secure, and compliant information system that supports your business instead of slowing it down.

Ready to get started? Let’s put a plan in place to take control of your digital records before they start controlling you.

Guide To Secure File Storage And Transfers

March 18, 2025

File storage and transferring hold a very dear place in most people’s lives.

However, the safety of files is really tough to maintain. In this guide, we are going to help you protect your files. We will explore ways to store and send files securely.

What is secure file storage?

Secure file storage protects your files. It prevents others from accessing your files or altering them in any way. Good storage grants protection to your files using locks. You alone can unlock such files.

Types of secure storage

Files can be stored securely in various ways, as listed below.

Cloud
External hard drives
Encrypted USB drives

Cloud storage saves files on the internet. External drives save files on a device you can hold. Encrypted drives use special codes to lock files.

Why is secure file storage important?

Secure storage keeps your information private. It stops thieves from stealing your data. It also helps you follow laws about data protection.

Risks of unsecured storage

Unsecured files can lead to huge troubles, including but not limited to the following:

Identity theft
Financial loss
Privacy breaches

These risks give a reason why secure storage is important. You need to protect your personal and work files.

How can I make my file storage safer?

You can do so many things to make your storage safer, such as:

Using strong passwords
Enabling MFA
Encrypting your files
Keeping your software up to date frequently

Strong passwords are hard to guess. Two-factor authentication adds an extra step to log in. Encryption scrambles your files so others can’t read them. Updates fix security problems in your software.

Best practices for passwords

Good passwords are important in keeping your files safer. Here are some tips:

Use long passwords
Mix letters, numbers, and symbols
Don’t use personal info in passwords
Use different passwords for each account

What is secure file transfer?

Secure file transfer is a way of sending files safely between individuals or devices. It prevents unauthorized access to files and prohibits modification of files in transit. The better methods of transfer protect the files with encryption.

Common secure transfer methods

Here are several ways to securely transfer files:

Secure FTP (SFTP)
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
Encrypted email attachments
Secure file-sharing services

How to transfer files safely?

These steps will keep your files safer while in transit:

Select a secure method of transfer
Encrypt the file before you send it
Give strong passwords for file access
Authenticate the recipient
Send the access details separately

How to email attachments safely

Encrypt important attachments
Use a secure email service
Avoid writing sensitive information in the body of an email
Double-check the recipient’s email address

Ready to secure your files?

Protect your data from thieves and snoopers. Use strong passwords, encryption, and safe methods of transfer.

Feel free to reach out today and let us walk you through setting up safe systems for your files to take the next step in protecting critical data.

When Was Your Last Permissions Review?

July 26, 2021

When was the last time you reviewed who in your business has access to which documents?

Do you know who has access to your documents? Or can everyone access everything?

You may need to make some changes. You see, the more people that have access to your business documents, the less secure they are.

Let’s imagine for a moment that one of your people opens a very convincing email, supposedly from a supplier.

The email contains a document to download, which they do, because it’s from a supplier, right? They can trust it.

What your employee didn’t notice was that the email signature was missing or that the email address wasn’t the same as it usually is.

And the document they downloaded has now installed malware on their device.

They don’t notice the malware because it all looked legit and nothing obvious has happened. They continue their working day unaware.

While they’re working, the malware is working too, in the background. It’s accessing and copying all of the data that your employee has access to.

You might get lucky and stop this malware before it enters your network and takes everything, but if your employee already has access to everything, well, it’s gone. Although this isn’t a malicious act on behalf of the employee, they’ve essentially caused a huge data breach that could kill your business.

And this scenario doesn’t even need the malware to become a reality. One day, a member of your team might decide they’d like to make a little money by stealing your valuable data.

By giving everyone access to everything, you’re making it too easy – and too tempting – for them.

So, if you haven’t already done this, I suggest that this week you make it a priority to sit down and work out who needs access to which files and documents and restrict access to absolutely everything.

Keep your own document detailing who has access to what. And update it whenever anyone joins the business or changes roles.

This is also a great way of protecting your data when somebody leaves, because you can see exactly what you need to revoke access to.

If you already restrict access, when was the last time you reviewed it?

Are people able to access files they no longer need? And are there people who could benefit from access to more documents to complete their role?

Yes, that’s a lot to think about. But once you have a detailed document to work from, regular reviews are pretty simple and definitely worth your time.

Please give us a call if you’d like to go over the shares and permissions on your network.

Top Reasons To Jumpstart Your Paperless Initiative

December 10, 2019

Want to “go paperless” with your company? See the many benefits of paperless business and learn how to jumpstart this initiative for effective results.

Many businesses toy around with the idea of “going paperless,” but what’s actually in it for the companies who decide to go through with it? To be sure, not all businesses are cut out to go paperless.

Certain documents in certain industries simply must be in paper form. Therefore, depending on your industry and unique company needs, you may end up unnecessarily complicating affairs if you try to do everything digitally.

At the same time, a great many companies will benefit significantly from making this change. Below, we’ll go over the specific reasons why it might be a good idea for your company. First, though, let’s define what going paperless actually means.

What does it really mean to “go paperless?”
The term “going paperless” simply refers to the shift from printed documents to digital documents. For example, instead of printing invoices, order forms, and tax documents, a company would issue all of these documents digitally, sending them via email or storing them as files.

What are the top reasons to “go paperless?”
You’ll save money. Cloud data storage is a lot less expensive than on-premise data storage. Moreover, on-premise data storage forces you to pay for the maximum amount of storage you may need upfront. With cloud storage, you can easily scale your storage capacity up or down, depending on your needs.

You’ll have document access from everywhere
Most businesses who go paperless store their documents in the cloud. When you do this, access to these documents is available wherever you can find an Internet connection.

This makes it easier to hire remote workers, send employees on work trips, and access important information even when you’re away from the office.

You’ll save time
Consider the time it takes to print, scan, copy, collate, organize, and store all of your paper documents. Additionally, remember that when you have a huge number of documents to contend with, protocols and systems must be developed, instituted, and monitored. Lastly, think about how long it takes to find a specific document within your files. All of these tasks are time- consuming, and in any business, time is money.

When you switch to a digital system of document storage, you’ll be saving an immense amount of time. Documents can be digitally created, copied, sent, edited, and stored.

There’s no need to run to the printer or search through endless boxes for the paper file you need. When searching for files, you can simply pop a few keywords into the search bar of your data storage system, and voilà — it will appear!

You’ll save space
Consider how much space you currently use to store paper documents. From old tax returns and invoices to printed data and memos, an accumulation of individual sheets of paper can actually take up quite a lot of room. Digital documents, on the other hand, are virtually invisible. As long as you have enough data storage capacity available, you’ll gain tons of physical space when you make the switch to a paperless system.

Data Encryption – What You Really Need To Know

December 27, 2018

In today’s digitally driven world, far too many personal and business devices are left unsecured. These devices don’t leverage strong passwords and fail to have the encryption needed to protect vital data.

Whether companies choose to store data in public, private, or hybrid clouds, they should always ensure that the data is encrypted before it leaves their devices or networks.

Additionally, when employees think that “this data isn’t important,” they are creating the weak links that hackers need to successfully infiltrate a device (or network) and subsequently steal unencrypted data, upload malware attacks, and otherwise wreak havoc on unsuspecting businesses.

What Is The Difference Between Backups And Redundancy?

August 20, 2018

Chris Myers is a field service technician for Tech Experts.

Modern businesses can generate massive amounts of data in a short period of time. As such, a vital topic of research are ways to project that data.

There are two main categories of data protection: redundancy and backups. These two types of data protection are both very important, but they are not interchangeable.

Both must be understood so that you are not caught unprepared when catastrophe strikes.

What Is Redundancy?
On a single hard drive, data is saved just one time. If that hard drive fails, then that data is lost. In order to prevent this from happening, multiple hard drives are used to store multiple copies of each piece of data.

This setup is called a “RAID,” which stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks.

When a single hard drive fails in a properly set up RAID, the other drives change how they operate and continue saving files with very little interruption and no loss of data. In a business such as a doctor’s office where appointments are booked out three months in advance, redundancy can be the difference between a service call with less than thirty minutes of downtime and a multiple day outage affecting hundreds of patients and staff.

What Are Backups?
There are many other ways in which data can be lost, including file corruption, accidental deletion, fire, theft, malware, and more.

Redundancy can protect against hard drive failure, but in cases such as these, it is of no help. For example, if the user accidentally deletes a file, all redundant copies of that file will be deleted.

This is where backups come in. Backups copy your data onto a completely separate storage device.

The most secure backup systems are called offsite backups, because the data is copied to another geographic location entirely. If a user accidentally deletes a file that is backed up, that file can be restored using the backup copy.

However, restoring files from an offsite backup can take quite a long time depending on the amount of data and available network bandwidth. Due to this, many businesses keep another backup on a different device in the same building.

This is referred to as a local backup. Since restoring from a local backups only involve sending the data over the internal network, or even directly copying onto another drive, they can greatly reduce downtime.

So, Which Solution Should You Have?
None of these data protection methods are mutually exclusive and each of these methods has strengths and weaknesses.

With that in mind, most businesses will get the most benefit by having all of them in place because each one fills a gap in coverage left by another.

Redundancy will save data if a single drive is lost to mechanical failure, with very little downtime. However, it can’t protect against almost all other types of data loss.

A local backup will protect against all types of data loss except when both the default and backup locations are lost at the same time. Restoring takes longer than a redundant drive, but is still quite fast.

An offsite backup takes the longest to restore from, but protects against almost all scenarios.

So, the next time you want to impress your coworkers and possibly save the company, ask whether your server or network-attached storage has both backups and redundancy in place.

What Is Data Retention? Why Do I Need It?

May 23, 2018

If you are in the medical or legal industry, regulations require you to retain data and records for a certain period of time. The data retention process was a little more clear-cut back when it was only files and sheets of papers in brown boxes that you stored in the attic or the basement.

However, in today’s time, almost everything is in digital form, whether it’s stored locally on a file server, external hard drives, or in the cloud.

This data needs to be secure and easily accessible in the event you need to retrieve any of it. Depending on how much data you have, there are many options.

The one thing you do not want to do is buy a cheap hard drive, move your data over to it, and think you’re safe.

If you only have one copy of that data and you move it to a new location, that is your only copy. You want to have your data saved in more than one location or a mirror copy of it saved.

A business might want to consider a local or cloud server with a RAID setup so that there is a copy of your copy. It creates a copy of your data so that, in the event of a hardware failure or data corruption, the data can be restored from the second copy.

The first copy would be returned to the last version, like nothing happened to it.

If you are a larger business and/or deal with medical or financial information, it would be very wise to utilize data encryption for the stored data.

However, every business should create a data retention policy and follow it. Categorize documents and images, then specify how long the data is to be retained.

Make sure all employees and IT professionals with access to company and client data know and adhere to this policy.

The main thing to keep in mind is the type and quality of hardware that is used. It’s great to have a data retention policy in place and follow it exactly, but if your data gets corrupted, stolen, or a hard drive fails, the policy does you no good.

The key to a rock-solid data retention policy starts with having a robust backup solution in place as well.

The backup solution can either be a cloud-based system or an on-site enterprise storage device or server with a proper RAID setup.

Here at Tech Experts, we can assist you with establishing a file server with the correct RAID configuration to ensure that the retained data is safe and secure, with encryption and redundancy built in. Cloud based image backups are also a great way to ensure the safety of your data.

We can also start you on a managed service plan for monitoring and maintenance of that server and your other workstations, laptops, printer, and VoIP phone systems.

Wherever you decide to store your data, make sure that enterprise hardware and security measures are used to ensure that your data will remain intact.

Five Ways To Take Your Business Paper Free

December 1, 2017

If you’re a small business owner, chances are you always have one eyes on your operating costs and the best way to reduce or eliminate extra expenses and improve staff efficiency.

One great way in which you can gain some great cost savings is by eliminating paper.

Paper-based tasks increase storage, postage, and compliance costs and can be a major overhead for modern-day businesses.

Here are five ways you can reduce paper usage and save yourself some cash in the process.

Smart Project Management

Traditionally, the process of managing company projects that involve different departments and multiple people generates massive amounts of paperwork.

More contemporary organizations are taking the smart project management approach through the use of cloud-based solutions, such as Basecamp, Asana or Trello, which allow you to ditch the paper while running a project online with unlimited users.

Electronic Payroll

Rectifying payroll issues costs half of all small business an average of $850 annually. Using decent payroll software reduces the errors and facilitates paperless processing. An electronic payroll system automates all the manual calculations such as tracking hours worked, calculating salaries, and filing taxes.

Salaries can also be paid electronically rather than printing checks or visiting the bank.

The additional benefits of electronic payroll include self-service functionality, and allowing staff to view their payroll data, such as personal details, tax deductions and pay slips online from any device.

Receipts and Invoices

Eliminate paper (and postage costs) by offering customers the option to receive electronic receipts either by email or text.

Your customer will then have it for future reference. Ask suppliers to issue and email digital invoices, which you can save into your accounting software.

Cloud Storage

Small businesses spend a lot of money to purchase, fill and maintain filing cabinets!

Switching to cloud storage can reduce most of this cost as many services, like Dropbox, offer a free allowance.

Most cloud-based options also allow you to organize documents into separate folders.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

CRM software can reduce the extent to which you rely on paper to store and track customer details, purchase orders, quotes and other correspondence.

Features include the ability to store customer data and interactions, manage staff details and vendors, and store documents.