Backup and continuity for Microsoft 365
Every email and file, backed up.
Ready when Microsoft 365 isn't.
MyStandby keeps an independent, encrypted copy of your email, contacts, calendars, tasks, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams chats, with every version kept. If something is deleted or damaged, we put it back as it was. If Microsoft 365 goes down, your staff sign in by text and carry on working.
Run on our own infrastructure in Yorkshire by 2plus1.
Microsoft runs the service. Your data, and your working day, are down to you.
Microsoft keeps Microsoft 365 running, and keeps deleted items for a limited time. It doesn't keep an independent copy you can go back to, and it can't give you somewhere to work when the service itself stops.
Things go wrong inside your own Microsoft 365 too. A folder is deleted and nobody notices for months. A compromised account empties a mailbox. Ransomware encrypts files on a laptop and OneDrive syncs the damage.
MyStandby covers both. A backup kept apart from Microsoft, with every version. And a standby your staff can work from when Microsoft 365 is down.
The backup
A complete copy of your Microsoft 365, kept current and kept apart.
Copied every few minutes through Microsoft's official API, onto our own equipment in Yorkshire. Nothing is ever overwritten, so we can go back to how things were at any moment.
- Every mailbox, shared ones too
- Contacts
- Calendars
- OneDrive for every user
- SharePoint document libraries
- Teams chats and channels
- Group mailboxes
- Tasks
- Inbox rules and settings
- Kept whole
- Each item is copied once and kept whole: an email exactly as Exchange holds it, attachments and headers included, and each file with its content.
- Every version kept
- History only ever grows. A change or a deletion adds a new version and never overwrites the one before. Moving an email between folders is a move, not a deletion.
- Any moment, on request
- We can see what a mailbox or folder held at any point, say last Tuesday at 9am. That's what a point-in-time restore puts back.
- Encrypted, stored once
- Encrypted with AES-256-GCM under your organisation's own key. Identical content, like one attachment sent to twenty people, is stored once.
What it protects against
When something goes wrong inside Microsoft 365, the copy is still there.
Accidental deletion
A folder emptied by mistake and only missed months later. It's still in the copy, even after Microsoft's own retention has passed.
A compromised account
Someone gets into an account and empties the mailbox. The copy still holds every message as it was before they got in.
Ransomware in OneDrive
Files encrypted on a laptop sync up to OneDrive. Earlier versions are kept, so the files can go back to how they were before it happened.
Leavers
A leaver's mailbox was removed, and now someone needs an email from it. What was in the copy is still there.
Problems at Microsoft's end
Your copy is held separately, on our own equipment in the UK, so a problem on Microsoft's side doesn't reach it.
Restores
We restore it for you
Tell us what's missing and roughly when it was last right. We put it back into Microsoft 365 as it was at that moment: a single email, a folder, a whole mailbox or a file.
A managed service: there's no restore screen for you to learn.
The standby
Microsoft goes down. Your staff carry on. Nothing to clean up afterwards.
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01
We switch you over
We put your organisation into outage mode and your staff get a text. They tap the link, and they're in: no password to remember, no app to install, on a phone or any computer.
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02
Work carries on
Everyone has their mail, with new mail still arriving, plus their calendar, contacts and files to look up, and a simple team chat so people can still talk.
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03
Microsoft comes back, so does everything
Mail received during the outage is delivered to Outlook. Replies sent from MyStandby go into each person's Sent Items, checked so nothing lands twice. We switch the standby off.
For your staff
It looks like email, because it is their email.
- Sign in by text. A link to the mobile number you choose. It works once and expires in ten minutes.
- Their whole history, not just this week. Folders as they left them, with full-text search across years of mail.
- New mail keeps arriving. Mail sent to you during the outage shows up straight away.
- Reply, reply all and new email, with address suggestions from the people they write to most.
- Calendar, contacts and files to look up, read-only: who they're meeting, how to call them, and their OneDrive and team libraries to download from.
- Team chat, with a room for everyone, a room per team, direct messages and @mentions.
- Outlook or Gmail layout, whichever feels familiar. Works on phones.
What's covered
Honest about what's in, and what isn't.
Every mailbox, shared ones too, backed up with every version. Read, search, reply and send from the standby during an outage.
New mail during an outage
Your domain's MX record points at MyStandby all the time, and MyStandby passes mail straight on to Microsoft 365. When Microsoft is down, new mail is received and held, shows in the standby straight away, and is delivered to Outlook once Microsoft is back. Setting up is a one-off change to your MX record, which we walk through with you.
Contacts and calendars
Backed up with their history. Read-only during an outage: who's coming, where, and their number.
OneDrive and SharePoint
Backed up with versions. During an outage, people can browse and download their own OneDrive and the libraries of the Microsoft 365 groups they belong to, read-only, then upload their edits once Microsoft is back. Folders with their own special permissions are kept for restore but not shown in the standby.
Team chat during an outage
A simple team chat in the standby: a room for everyone, a room per team, direct messages and @mentions, so people can still talk. It stands in for Teams during the outage; it isn't a copy of Teams. The chat stays in MyStandby afterwards as a record.
Teams chat history
Chats and channel messages are backed up, edits and deletions included. Microsoft gives no way to put old messages back into Teams as the people who wrote them, so a Teams restore comes to you as a readable transcript of the conversation.
Tasks
Everyone's To Do and Outlook task lists, with their checklists and history. Microsoft doesn't let a backup service create tasks, so a restore comes as a file Outlook imports, not straight back into To Do.
Rules, categories and automatic replies
Each person's inbox rules, colour categories and out-of-office message, with their history. Deleted a rule by mistake? We can put it back.
Group mailboxes
The email conversations in each Microsoft 365 group, with attachments. Restored as emails into the mailbox of whoever needs them, never re-sent to the group.
What Microsoft keeps out of reach
Microsoft gives backup services no way in to a group's shared calendar, Outlook Sticky Notes, email signatures or online archive mailboxes, so these aren't in the backup. We'll tell you if that changes.
Security
A second copy of your organisation's mail and files is a serious thing to hold. We treat it that way.
- Encrypted, per organisation
- Every stored email, contact, event and file is encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a key that belongs to your organisation alone.
- Kept apart
- Each organisation's data lives in its own store. One client's copy can't be read with another's key.
- Approved by you, revocable by you
- MyStandby works through Microsoft's official API with permissions your administrator approves: reading to back up, and writing only to put things back when you ask for a restore. Remove the approval and access stops.
- Can't change your set-up
- It has no rights to your users, groups, roles or policies, so it can't change who has access to what.
- Only the people you choose
- You decide who can sign in to the standby, and with which mobile number. Links work once, expire in ten minutes, and only work while the standby is switched on.
- Hosted in the UK
- On our own equipment in Yorkshire, run by the same people who look after your IT. Not a reseller badge on someone else's platform.
Tested before you need it
Practise the switch on a quiet afternoon.
Test mode opens the standby to a few people you pick while Microsoft 365 is working normally, so you know it works, and they know what the text looks like, long before the day it matters.
Pricing
An add-on for 2plus1 managed clients
A flat monthly fee for your organisation, plus a small amount per person. Fully managed by us: we set it up, watch the backup, restore what you need, and switch the standby on when Microsoft goes down.
One service for both jobs: the backup you need most weeks, and the standby you hope you never need.
Ask for a priceQuestions
The ones people ask first.
Doesn't Microsoft already back up our data?
Microsoft keeps its service resilient, and keeps deleted items and earlier file versions for a limited time. That isn't the same as an independent copy, held somewhere else, with history you can go back through after Microsoft's retention has run out. If something goes wrong inside your Microsoft 365, our copy is still there.
How do restores work?
Tell us what you need back and roughly when it was last right. We find it in the copy as it was at that moment and put it back into Microsoft 365: a single email, a folder, a whole mailbox, a contact, a calendar, an inbox rule or a file. It can go back where it was, into a separate restored folder, or into someone else's mailbox or OneDrive (a leaver's mail to their manager, say). If you'd rather have a copy, we can send it as files instead. There's no restore screen to learn; we do it for you.
How far back does it go?
The first copy takes everything that's in your Microsoft 365 at the time, however old. That takes a while for a large organisation. From then on it's kept current every few minutes, and every change is kept as a new version, so the history grows from the day we start.
Do we have to change our MX record? Is that risky?
Yes, once. Your MX record points at MyStandby, which passes mail straight through to Microsoft 365, so day to day nothing changes for your staff. We set it up with you and check mail is flowing properly before we switch. If Microsoft is down, MyStandby holds new mail, shows it in the standby, and delivers it to Outlook once Microsoft is back.
Who decides when we switch over?
We do, as soon as we've confirmed Microsoft 365 is down for you, and you can ask us to at any time. It's never automatic, so a short blip doesn't send texts to everyone.
Do my staff need to install anything?
No. MyStandby works in the web browser on any phone or computer. They get a text with a link, tap it, and they're in.
What happens to emails sent from MyStandby?
They go to the people they were written to, and once Microsoft 365 is back a copy goes into the sender's Outlook Sent Items, so their records are complete. Each one carries its own ID, so it never lands twice.
What about files and Teams?
OneDrive and SharePoint files are backed up with their versions. During an outage people can browse and download their own OneDrive and their groups' libraries, read-only, and upload their edits once Microsoft is back. Teams chats and channel messages are backed up too; those come back as a readable transcript, because Teams has no way to take old messages back. During an outage the standby has its own simple team chat.
Can we try it before we rely on it?
Yes. Test mode lets a few people you choose sign in to the standby while everything is working normally. We'll also happily show you a demo first.
Is MyStandby part of Microsoft?
No. MyStandby is an independent service from 2plus1. It works with Microsoft 365 through Microsoft's published API.
See it working
Twenty minutes, on a test organisation, on your phone.
We'll send you a sign-in text, show you the standby with real-looking mail in it, walk through what the backup keeps and how a restore works, and talk through what it would take to switch on for you.
Or call 2plus1 on the number you already have.