Microsoft 365 Backup Services for Australian Businesses

Microsoft 365 backup vs Microsoft 365 retention — what's the difference?

Native Microsoft 365 retention features — deleted item recovery, recycle bins, and litigation hold — are not backup. They cannot restore your data to a specific point in time before a corruption or ransomware event. They have limited retention windows that vary by feature and licence. And they cannot recover data that has been permanently deleted or overwritten across the tenant.

True backup means an independent, immutable copy of your data that can be restored to any point in time — regardless of what happens inside the Microsoft 365 tenant. That distinction matters most in the moments you need it: a ransomware event, a departing employee deleting their mailbox, or a synchronisation error that corrupts thousands of files across SharePoint.

Mycelium 365's Microsoft 365 backup stores your data in independently managed storage outside the Microsoft 365 tenant — so tenant-level events cannot touch it.

Ransomware targeting Microsoft 365 typically encrypts files across SharePoint and OneDrive using legitimate Microsoft APIs — meaning Microsoft's own retention cannot distinguish between a user intentionally modifying files and ransomware encrypting them. From the platform's perspective, both look like normal user activity.

An independent Microsoft 365 backup solution with immutable storage and point-in-time restore can recover your data to the moment before the ransomware event — without paying the ransom and without losing data. Recovery becomes a restore operation, not a negotiation.

Mycelium 365's Microsoft 365 backup is stored in independently managed storage outside the Microsoft 365 tenant — unaffected by tenant-level events including ransomware, admin errors, and accidental mass deletion.

What's included in Mycelium 365's Microsoft 365 backup service

• Daily backup of all four Microsoft 365 workloads — Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams
• Automated backup verification with failure alerting, so a failed backup never goes unnoticed
• Monthly restore testing with documented results — proof your backups actually work
• Point-in-time restore to any day within the retention period
• Granular item-level restore — individual emails, files, or folders without a full tenant restore
• Quarterly backup review reporting for management and audit purposes

Backup retention: minimum 30 days, with extended retention available on request for organisations with longer regulatory or contractual obligations.

Microsoft 365 backup is separate from Azure Backup

Mycelium 365 provides two distinct backup services covering different layers of the Microsoft stack. Microsoft 365 backup (this page) protects SaaS data inside Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. Managed Azure Backup protects infrastructure — virtual machines, Azure SQL databases, Azure File Shares, and on-premises servers connected to Azure.

Both services are managed by Mycelium 365 but operate independently. Most organisations need both: Microsoft 365 backup for their cloud data, and Azure Backup for their cloud infrastructure.

Microsoft 365 backup and ACNC / APRA obligations

For Australian not-for-profit organisations, ACNC record retention requirements — seven years for financial records — mean Microsoft 365 email and document backup is not optional. It is a compliance obligation, and Microsoft's native retention windows do not meet it.

For APRA-regulated entities, APRA CPS 230 operational risk management requirements include the maintenance of business continuity capability and data recovery. Microsoft 365 backup with extended retention directly satisfies both requirements.

Mycelium 365 manages backup retention configuration and provides evidence documentation suitable for ACNC and APRA audit purposes.

How much does Microsoft 365 backup cost?

Microsoft 365 backup is included in Mycelium 365's Secure Essentials managed package from $95/user/month — covering Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams backup alongside Microsoft 365 management, helpdesk, Intune, and Defender for Business.

There is no additional per-user fee for Microsoft 365 backup within the managed package. Contact Mycelium 365 for a fixed-price proposal.