Don’t overlook Teams: Protecting all your Microsoft 365 data

Microsoft 365 has become the operational core of modern organizations that powers communication, collaboration and information exchange. Microsoft Teams is now the central workspace for daily interactions, replacing internal emails, coordinating projects and capturing key decision-making processes. 

Despite its critical role, Teams remains one of the most under protected components of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Many organizations assume that because data resides in Microsoft’s cloud, it is automatically backed up and recoverable. That assumption creates a significant gap in data protection strategies. 

Microsoft’s native retention policies are designed for availability and governance — not full backup, long-term retention or reliable point-in-time recovery. Misconfigurations, user offboarding, malicious activity or simple human error can result in the irreversible loss of Teams conversations, meeting information, shared files and operational context. 

To protect the full Microsoft 365 suite, organizations require a dedicated backup solution. Acronis Cyber Protect and Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud deliver complete, automated protection for all Microsoft 365 workloads, including the distributed architecture of Teams. 

Understanding Microsoft’s Shared Responsibility Model is essential. Microsoft safeguards the infrastructure, ensuring uptime, physical security and replication across data centers. Organizations, however, are responsible for protecting their own content from accidental deletion, retention gaps, insider threats, ransomware or operational mistakes. 

Microsoft 365 provides limited recovery mechanisms: 

• Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive: Versioning and recycle bins with time-bounded retention. 

• Teams:  Data distributed across multiple services: 

• 1:1 and group chats → hidden folders in Exchange Online 

• Channel messages → Exchange mailboxes for associated Microsoft 365 Groups 

• Channel files → SharePoint Online 

• Private chat files → OneDrive for Business 

• Meeting recordings → OneDrive or SharePoint 

• Meeting transcripts and metadata → separate retention policies 

This fragmentation makes retention complex and recovery inconsistent. Once retention windows expire or user accounts are removed, content can be permanently deleted with no built-in method for point-in-time restoration. 

Native tools preserve availability, but they do not provide comprehensive data protection. 

Teams has evolved from a communication add-on into a full system of record. Critical business conversations, approvals, shared files and historical context increasingly live inside Teams chats and channels. 

Examples of content with long-term operational value: 

• Project decisions and workflow approvals. 

• Files iterated on directly within channels. 

• Meeting chats, transcripts and summaries. 

• Sensitive internal discussions. 

• Client and partner communications. 

• Historical context explaining changes to documents or timelines. 

When this information is lost, the downstream impact affects compliance, onboarding, audits and the continuity of ongoing work. 

Teams operates as a federation of Microsoft 365 services rather than a standalone application. A single Team may reference: 

• An Exchange mailbox 

• A SharePoint site 

• A OneDrive library 

• A Planner board 

• A OneNote workspace 

• Integrated apps and connectors 

Deleting or misconfiguring one component affects the others. Without a unified backup solution, recovery is incomplete or impossible. 

Industries governed by GDPR, FINRA, ISO 27001, HIPAA, SOX and other frameworks often require data retention periods far longer than Microsoft’s defaults. If Teams messages or meeting content are purged due to policy configuration or user removal, organizations could face compliance issues. 

When a user account is removed to free a license, Teams chat content associated with that user may be scheduled for deletion. If needed later for audits, HR reviews or legal discovery, it might not be recoverable. 

Teams data loss rarely stems from infrastructure failure. It is typically caused by human-driven events and is often discovered months after the fact. 

1. Offboarding oversights 

Removing a user license marks their mailbox — and the Teams chat content stored within it — for deletion. After the retention period ends, the data is gone permanently unless backed up externally. 

2. Malicious or compromised accounts 

A user with elevated access can delete channels, purge SharePoint files or remove chat history. Even though recycle bins exist, double-deletion or retention policies can permanently remove this data. 

3. Retention policy misconfiguration 

Admins may assume retention equals backup. If a policy is configured to delete items older than a certain age, or if multiple policies interact unintentionally, valuable content may be systematically removed. 

4. Administrative mistakes 

Deleting a Team triggers a cascade: 

• The Microsoft 365 Group is removed. 

• The associated SharePoint site is locked. 

• The Exchange components are hidden. 

• Connected resources lose their references. 

Manual native recovery is complex and often incomplete. 

5. Delayed discovery 

Most data is not requested the day after deletion. It’s requested months later during audits, HR reviews or legal processes. By then, native retention windows have long passed. 

Acronis Cyber Protect and Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud provide robust, unified protection for the entire Microsoft 365 environment, eliminating the fragmentation and limitations of native retention. 

Automated cloud-to-cloud backups for: 

• Teams 

• Exchange Online 

• SharePoint Online 

• OneDrive for Business 

Backups remain independent of Microsoft’s platform and unaffected by account or policy changes. 

Acronis supports granular recovery of: 

• Individual messages 

• Channel threads 

• Files shared in chats or channels 

• Entire Teams, including membership and structure 

Restore data back into Microsoft 365 or export for investigation, compliance or legal review. 

Acronis protects backup data with: 

• Immutability controls 

• Strong encryption 

• Independent, isolated storage 

This mitigates risks from ransomware, insider threats and accidental deletions. 

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud includes: 

• A centralized multi-tenant console 

• Automated tenant onboarding 

• Policy templates 

• Unified backup + cybersecurity + endpoint management 

This enables MSPs to manage large portfolios efficiently while meeting SLAs and regulatory requirements. 

A dependable Microsoft 365 strategy combines dedicated backup with disciplined operational processes: 

Ensure Teams retention aligns with regulatory, operational and legal requirements. 

An external backup ensures recoverability even when content is purged from the tenant. 

Verify RTO, accuracy and readiness for incident response. 

Protect backup data from alteration or deletion during cyberattacks. 

Configure retention and recovery settings based on RPO / RTO targets and the organization’s risk profile. 

Microsoft Teams has become a central repository of organizational knowledge, yet it remains one of the most overlooked components in Microsoft 365 data protection strategies. Native retention helps maintain availability but does not provide the independent, long-term, point-in-time protection required for business continuity, compliance or recovery from operational disruption. 

Retention is not backup. 

Acronis Cyber Protect and Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud deliver the dedicated, granular and policy-driven protection that MSPs and IT teams need to safeguard Teams and the broader Microsoft 365 environment. 

This unified approach ensures organizations can recover collaboration data reliably and maintain continuity across all workloads.