SharePoint Online RPO and RTO - Backup and recovery plan

Question

I have below questions about SharePoint Online Disaster Recovery, RTO, PRO, Backup and Restore.

1. How does Microsoft SharePoint Online manage DR? Can we choose/configure primary and secondary region considering data protection and compliance policy? What is defined RTO and RPO for SharePoint online?
2. How to setup backup and long term retention for backup? Is there way to enable backup at specific location? By default how many days SharePoint Online retain backup?
3. What are the various ways to have point in time restore in SharePoint Online?

Answer 1

Hi Abhilash,

Data protection services are provided to prevent the loss of SharePoint Online data, so, it is not required to configure another region. Backups are performed every 12 hours and retained for 14 days. When a user deletes content from a SharePoint site, it’s not deleted immediately. Instead, it’s sent to the site's Recycle Bin, where you can restore the deleted content if needed. If the content is deleted from site Recycle Bin, it’s sent to the Site Collection Recycle Bin. As a SharePoint site collection administrator, you can restore a user’s deleted item from the Second-Stage or Site Collection Recycle Bin to its original location, if the item hasn't exceeded the retention time that the service administrator set. In SharePoint Online, the default is around 90 days.

SharePoint Online retains backups of all content for 14 additional days beyond actual deletion (after the data is deleted from second stage recycle bin). If content cannot be restored via the Recycle Bin or Files Restore, an administrator can contact Microsoft Support to request a restore any time inside the 14-day window. Assisted support Engineers should help you evaluate the period which will be needed to recover the data.

In SharePoint Online, the backup and restoring features are reflected by the following features: version, template, recycle bin.

Here are some articles with detailed information: Restore options in SharePoint Online, Restore deleted items from the site collection recycle bin and SharePoint Online restore options

Moreover, if lots of your SharePoint files get deleted, overwritten, corrupted, or infected by malware, you can restore an entire SharePoint document library to a previous time. The restore will undo all the actions that occurred on both files and folders in the last 30 days. Reference: Restore a document library.

As this blog says, Protecting your data against file corruption, data loss, and malicious intent is a top priority for Microsoft, and an integral part of the Office 365 service. Our approach to data protection goes beyond high availability and disaster recovery scenarios. Resiliency and recoverability are built into the service.

In addition, for a large-scale cloud service like Office 365, we are focused on exceeding our SLA by designing and building services that are redundant and resilient. By delivering services with always on/always replicating architecture, the terms RTO/RPO become obsolete and are more of a legacy from the world of IT. To learn more about our SLA policy, please visit the Office Trust Center. To learn more about how Office 365 communicate with our customers about service health, please visit our service management admin learning center.

Please let me know you have any doubt.

Thanks,

Neha

Answer 2

Hi Abhilash,

I am writing to follow up on this case. Did you check above reply? If you still need help, please update us when you have time.

Regards,

Neha

Answer 3

Abhilash

As you can tell from the scattered links, Msft offers no single, comprehensive dr plan. The suggestion that you can Restore deleted items from the site collection recycle bin is totally absurd. You pretty much have to trust that Msft's infrastructure is far superior to anything your company could do and you won't need a recovery. Fingers crossed!!