Microsoft 365 & Google Workspace Backup for Northern Ontario Businesses
Independent, retained backup for the cloud email and file platforms your business already runs on, so a deleted mailbox, a misconfigured retention policy, or a compromised account doesn't become a permanent loss.
Serving Greater Sudbury, Northern Ontario, and surrounding communities. Remote support available throughout Ontario.
Most businesses assume that because their email and files live in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, they're automatically backed up. That's a reasonable assumption, and it's wrong. Both platforms operate on what's called a shared responsibility model: the vendor is responsible for keeping the service running and the infrastructure available, and you're responsible for the data inside it.
That gap shows up in a handful of predictable ways: a departing employee's mailbox gets purged past the recycle bin window, a SharePoint library gets overwritten by a sync error, a Teams channel's files vanish after a botched migration, or ransomware syncs encrypted files straight into OneDrive before anyone notices. Native retention tools help with some of this for a limited window, but they weren't built to be a real backup, and they can be adjusted or disabled by the same account that gets compromised in an attack.
Nickel City Tech Solutions deploys dedicated SaaS backup using Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud, an integrated platform that combines data protection, cybersecurity, and IT operations under one agent and one console. It gives us independently stored, dated recovery points for Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, and Google Workspace data, kept separate from your production tenant so a problem in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace doesn't also take out the backup.
The shared responsibility model, in plain terms
Microsoft and Google both publish this distinction directly in their service agreements: they guarantee uptime and infrastructure resilience, not protection against accidental deletion, insider mistakes, malicious actors with valid credentials, or retention misconfiguration. If a user deletes a folder and nobody notices for two months, that's outside what the platform vendor is on the hook for.
This isn't a flaw in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. It's simply not what those platforms are designed to do. Backup is a separate discipline with a separate tool, and treating 'it's in the cloud' as equivalent to 'it's backed up' is one of the more common and costly assumptions we run into.
Ransomware doesn't stop at your laptop
Sync clients are efficient at their job: the moment a file changes locally, whether that change was made by you or by ransomware, it propagates to OneDrive, SharePoint, or Google Drive. Version history in these platforms can help in narrow cases, but it has retention limits and doesn't cover every scenario, especially mass encryption events touching thousands of files at once.
Independent backup with credentials separated from your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace admin account means an attacker who gets into your tenant can't also delete or encrypt your recovery points. We can't promise any environment is immune to attack. We can build a recovery path that doesn't depend on the compromised environment being trustworthy.
SaaS backup for businesses across Northern Ontario
Cloud platforms make it easy to assume the data question is solved because the infrastructure question is. For law firms, accounting practices, clinics, and contractors across Greater Sudbury and Northern Ontario, that assumption tends to surface at the worst possible moment: during an audit, a lawsuit's document request, or a ransomware recovery when the client discovers native retention only covered 30 days.
We deploy and monitor SaaS backup as part of the same local relationship we bring to everything else: someone who knows your tenant, your retention needs, and your regulatory obligations, not a support queue that has never seen your environment before.
What's included
Exchange Online Backup
Mailboxes, shared mailboxes, and archive mailboxes, with granular restore of individual messages.
OneDrive & SharePoint Backup
File and site-level backup covering document libraries, versions, and permissions.
Teams Backup
Chats, channel conversations, and files backed up independently of Teams' own retention.
Google Workspace Backup
Gmail, Google Drive, Shared Drives, Calendar, and Contacts covered under the same platform.
Independent Retention
Retention set apart from your tenant's native policy so a misconfiguration doesn't wipe out your recovery points.
Granular Restore
Restore a single email, file, or folder without needing a full mailbox or Drive restore.
Who it's for
- Businesses running entirely on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace with no dedicated backup
- Law firms, accounting practices, and clinics with data retention obligations beyond native defaults
- Organizations that have had a deleted-mailbox or missing-file scare in the past
- Cyber insurance applicants asked whether cloud email and file data is independently backed up
- Businesses migrating between Microsoft 365 tenants or from Google Workspace to M365 (or vice versa)
- Anyone who has assumed 'it's in the cloud' means 'it's backed up'
Common problems we solve
- Deleted mailboxes or files past the native recycle bin recovery window
- Retention policies that don't match actual compliance requirements
- Backup that lives inside the same tenant an attacker could compromise
- No way to restore a single item without an all-or-nothing recovery
- Uncertainty during audits or legal holds about what data actually still exists
- Cyber insurance renewal questions about independent cloud data backup
Why Nickel City Tech Solutions
- Backup credentials and storage kept separate from your Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace tenant
- Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud: one integrated platform for backup, cybersecurity, and IT operations
- Retention configured to your actual compliance needs, not a generic default
- Granular restore for single items, not just full-account recovery
- Local Ontario team that already knows your tenant and users
- Works alongside our workstation, server, and disaster recovery services under one console
Related technologies we support
Platforms commonly delivered as part of this service across Greater Sudbury and Northern Ontario.
Browse all supported technologiesFrequently asked questions
Doesn't Microsoft already back up our data?
Microsoft protects the availability of its infrastructure, not your data against you. That's the shared responsibility model: Microsoft keeps the service running, but recovering an accidentally deleted mailbox from eight months ago, or rolling back a folder that a compromised account encrypted, is on you. Microsoft's own service terms recommend a third-party backup for exactly this reason.
What happens if our Microsoft 365 retention policy isn't enough?
Native retention and recycle bins are built for short-term accidents, not long-term recovery. Items age out, litigation holds get missed, and retention settings get changed by someone who didn't realize the consequences. A dedicated SaaS backup keeps independent, dated copies outside that policy, so a misconfiguration in your tenant doesn't also wipe out your backup.
Can ransomware that hits our email or OneDrive also destroy the backup?
If the backup relies on the same admin credentials and lives inside the same tenant, yes, it's exposed. We run backup with separated credentials and store copies outside the production tenant, so a compromised account can't reach or delete them.
What exactly gets backed up?
For Microsoft 365: Exchange Online mailboxes (including archive and shared mailboxes), OneDrive for Business, SharePoint sites and document libraries, and Teams chats, channels, and files. For Google Workspace: Gmail, Google Drive, Shared Drives, Calendar, and Contacts. We scope coverage to what your business actually uses.
Can we restore a single email or file instead of the whole mailbox?
Yes. Granular restore lets us bring back a single email, a folder, a specific file version, or an entire mailbox or Drive account, without having to do a full restore of everything. This is usually the difference between a five-minute fix and a half-day project.
How long is data retained?
Retention is configured independently from your Microsoft or Google settings, typically ranging from 30 days to several years depending on the data class and any compliance obligations you carry. We'll walk through what makes sense for mailboxes versus SharePoint archives versus Teams files.
Is this the same product as our server and workstation backup?
We use Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud for SaaS backup, which is the same platform we use for endpoint and server backup when applicable. That means one console, one vendor relationship, and consistent reporting instead of piecing together separate tools for separate data sources.
How fast can a restore actually happen?
A single mailbox or file restore is typically minutes once we locate the right recovery point. A full-tenant restore across many users takes longer and depends on data volume, so we build the recovery plan around realistic numbers rather than guesswork.
Related real-world projects
Backup Monitoring Investigation and Recovery Assurance
This Northern Ontario business thought its backups were healthy, until a monitoring alert said otherwise. We investigated the backup jobs, tracked down the root cause, closed the monitoring gap, and validated recovery through restore testing.
Read the case studyWorkstation Recovery for a Legal Office
A legal-office workstation kept crashing while running business-critical document management software. We performed a full rebuild, reinstalled the firm's legal applications, restored the user profile, and put the machine back into full production use.
Read the case studyCybersecurity Remediation and Hardening Project
A near-miss phishing incident prompted a Northern Ontario clinic to have us rebuild its security baseline. The result: MFA, conditional access, EDR, email security, immutable backups, and documented controls built with PHIPA considerations and cyber-insurance requirements in mind.
Read the case studyNeed help choosing the right IT solution?
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Related services, locations, and resources
Related services
- Backup & Disaster Recovery
Backup strategy, monitoring, and recovery testing.
- Disaster Recovery as a Service
Cloud failover, recovery runbooks, and tested restore objectives.
- Cybersecurity Services
Endpoint protection, MFA, email filtering, and M365 hardening.
- Microsoft 365 Support
Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and licensing.
- Email & Collaboration Security
Phishing, BEC, and malicious link protection for email, Teams, and shared files.
Related service areas
Related technologies
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