BEMO Cloud Backup for Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint and Office 365 Groups – BEMO Docs

Why do businesses need a backup solution for their data in the cloud?

Office 365 offers Geo-redundancy to protect against data loss related to a data center event by mirroring data across multiple data centers. However, that doesn’t protect against data loss events not related to a data center, as those data losses are mirrored across the multiple data centers. Office 365 Online Archiving and other features further protect data but require expertise, additional cost, and time to recover data. And when the data is recovered, it is often unstructured. Therefore, a backup solution is needed to provide a quick, seamless way to restore lost data exactly as it was and where it was so employees can get back on track and stay productive.

How is backup different than Disaster Recovery?

For many businesses, a backup solution is the right size for their need to restore lost data and stay productive. While a backup solution doesn’t offer many of the features covered by a complete Disaster Recovery solution (i.e. on-premises servers, PBX, CRM/ERP, etc.), it does solve the crucial piece of backing up data. So if data is lost, it can be quickly found and restored to exactly where it’s needed.

What makes BEMO Cloud Backup different from other Backup solutions?

Key differentiators of BEMO Cloud Backup, compared to other solutions out there:

Easy Setup: Nothing to install: Auto-discovery of mailboxes, SharePoint sites and OneDrive for Business accounts makes setup and subscribing a snap.
Fast Search, One-click restore: Find lost data lightning-fast and restore to their original location with a single click, and no file overwrites.
Unlimited backup: Up to six snapshots daily. No data caps or overages for Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive for Business.
Unlimited retention: No matter how long you need data backed up, BEMO Cloud Backup does it for one fixed price.
Automatically add to backup: BEMO Cloud Backup by default will automatically add new mailboxes and SharePoint/OneDrive users. Or, you can choose to be alerted to new users and add as desired.
Self-Service Portal available for you, customer: We can grant you access to the Self-Service Portal where you can perform the search and restore yourselves.
Free Support: Open a service request at Service Request.

Where is BEMO Cloud Backup Available?

BEMO Cloud Backup is available to all BEMO Customer enrolled in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.

What are the machine prerequisites to use BEMO Backup?

There are none. BEMO Backup is Cloud to Cloud Office 365 backup and is not bounded by the configuration of client machines, and there are no applications to install and manage.

Where is the data stored?

On your own Azure tenant in a dedicated storage account. You can select the location of the data center where the backup will be housed, including US, Australia, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore and a specific a data center (ex. US West, US Central, etc...)

How Does Cloud Backup Use Global Admin Rights?

Global Admins for SharePoint and OneDrive for Business have the authority to grant themselves explicit access to all SharePoint Site Collections and OneDrive for Business Accounts. When we partner provides Global Admin Credentials when setting up BEMO Cloud Backup, the technology built-in Office 365 uses that authority to explicitly grant the Global Admin access to all site collections and OneDrive for Business accounts that are included in the Cloud Backup subscription. This access is extended to any artifact which inherits permissions from that site collection and is necessary to enable the backup to occur.

One result of this is that the Global Admin will be listed as an owner of every item that is being backed up. This may result in confusion when end users see the Global Admin suddenly appear as an owner of an item. It is therefore recommended that partners inform customers of this expected result and explain that it neither changes overall permissions nor grants access that was previously not authorized.

How much do I need to pay for the Azure storage I use?

You will be paid for what you use and based on the storage type. If you go with the Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS), it will cost you $0.06/GB/mo.

What kind of data security does BEMO Cloud Backup offer?

Because your data never leaves the Azure environment you maintain all the inherent security of Azure. The data is encrypted at 128-bit during transit and 256-bit at rest within the Azure environment.

How do I restore my data?

BEMO Cloud Backup provides a simple, intuitive interface for fast search and quick restore. There are separate tabs for Exchange, SharePoint and OneDrive, and we or you have the option to restore by user for Exchange and OneDrive.

Note: Due to an Office 365 limitation, files larger than 10 GB cannot be restored to SharePoint or OneDrive for Business via automation. If you need to restore a file of this size, contact support.

How does the search capability work?

You can search for File Name, Email Sender Name and Email Subject and show those in the search results. For files, we search for attributes like File Name, Folder, and Author.

Will BEMO have visibility into customer email messages and files?

No. To maintain end-user privacy, we do not search inside the file or email.

What happens if someone tries to restore a file whose folder has been deleted?

BEMO Cloud Backup will re-create the folder architecture and restore the file in that recreated folder architecture. However, if someone were to delete the site collection, an admin would need to recreate the site collection manually before hitting restore on the file.

What happens to the backup if a user leaves a company and I delete their Office 365 subscription? Does the backup get deleted?

We will not delete the backup of the mailbox, and the content will be retained for the duration of the retention period (as indicated in the Settings section of an Office 365 Backup subscription). If the Office 365 license has been removed (thus deleting the mailbox from Office 365), this will pop up an alert titled: Backup [mailbox] not found. To address this alert you will need to disable the backup for the mailbox. Once the mailbox is disabled, you will no longer be charged for the mailbox and the alert will not pop up again.

In order to maintain the integrity of the mailbox, while removing the need to have it licensed, Microsoft’s best practice is to convert the mailbox to a shared mailbox first and then remove the license. By doing this, instead of simply removing the license and deleting the mailbox, no mailboxes will need to be created if the customer wants to restore the data. The backups can still be turned off for that mailbox, resulting in no further charges.

Please Note: Disabling the backup of a mailbox will NOT delete the backed up data. Search and restore is available while the subscription is active.

How do I restore information from this backup?

Today, the easiest way to restore this backup is to create a shared mailbox with the same name and restore to that.

Why might I see a decrease in my Azure storage container for Cloud Backup?

Cloud Backup creates temporary files during the backup process. Cloud Backup periodically deletes these files as part of its maintenance. When this occurs, you may notice a decrease in your Azure storage container size.

Important: These accounts, including their passwords, are created, used, and managed by the Cloud Backup service. Please do not change the email addresses or passwords for these accounts. This will make them inaccessible to Cloud Backup, resulting in Alerts and a call to Support to resolve.

How does Cloud Backup handle SharePoint files that are checked-out by a SharePoint user?

When SharePoint files are checked-out, they are not discoverable by Cloud Backup. Therefore, any changes to those files will only be backed up once the file is checked-in and the next scheduled backup has completed.

How can I purchase BEMO Cloud Backup?

How do I change or cancel a Cloud Backup subscription?

How does the Auto-Enable Backup feature work?

Cloud Backup automatically discovers new Exchange mailboxes, SharePoint sites, and OneDrive for Business accounts. If Auto-Enable Backup is selected, Cloud Backup will automatically back up these items, which may affect subscription costs. This setting can be changed at any time on the Settings page of the subscription.

Are there any scenarios that are not supported?

While Cloud Backup is designed to support common configurations of Office 365, there can be configurations of Office 365 that may fall outside the scope of Cloud Backup support.

The standalone versions of SharePoint Online (Plan 1) and OneDrive for Business (Plan 1) are configured in a way that prevents the Cloud Backup service from being able to identify and back up data. Therefore, these specific SKUs are not currently supported by Cloud Backup.
Cloud Backup for SharePoint and OneDrive for Business requires access to the SharePoint Admin Service of the Office 365 tenant. If this level of access is not provided, Cloud Backup cannot back up SharePoint sites or OneDrive for Business accounts.
Cloud Backup requires PowerShell access. Therefore, because legacy Office 365 Small Business tenants do not support this capability, they cannot be accessed by Cloud Backup for full functionality.
Cloud Backup currently does not back up the following three SharePoint site collections. The first two do not hold files or other data currently supported by Cloud Backup, and the third has been deprecated, but some older sites might still have it.
- MySiteHost (<tenantname>-my.sharepoint.com): A MySite Host Controls the appearance and behavior of the pages on all personal sites in your organization.
- Search Center (<tenantname>.sharepoint.com/search: A Search Center is where users enter search queries and view the search results.
- Public sites <tenantname>-public.sharepoint.com or <tenantname>-web.sharepoint.com: This feature has been deprecated, but some older sites might still have it.