Scaling Office 365 Backups from 5 TB to 30 TB
Scaling Office 365 Backups from 5 TB to 30 TB Seamlessly for a Rapidly Expanding Company
As organizations grow, their data grows even faster. Between emails, Teams conversations, SharePoint libraries, OneDrive files, and collaboration platforms, many businesses underestimate how quickly Microsoft 365 storage requirements can expand. What starts as a manageable backup environment can become a serious infrastructure challenge within just a few years.
At Epis Technology, we recently worked with a rapidly expanding company whose Microsoft 365 backup footprint grew from approximately 5 TB to more than 30 TB in a relatively short period. While business growth was positive, the increasing volume of data began creating concerns around backup performance, storage scalability, recovery times, and long-term retention.
The organization needed a solution that could scale without disrupting operations or compromising data protection.
The Growth Challenge
The company had experienced significant expansion through new hires, acquisitions, and increased reliance on Microsoft 365 services.
Their environment included:
- Exchange Online
- SharePoint Online
- OneDrive for Business
- Microsoft Teams
- Shared collaboration workspaces
- Large project archives
As user counts increased, so did the amount of business-critical information requiring protection.
What was once a modest backup environment had grown into a large-scale data protection challenge.
Early Warning Signs
The organization began noticing several operational concerns:
- Longer backup windows
- Increased storage consumption
- Slower recovery testing
- Growing retention requirements
- Capacity planning challenges
- Administrative complexity
Although backups were still functioning, leadership wanted to avoid future bottlenecks before they affected recovery readiness.
Why Backup Growth Requires Planning
Many businesses focus on storage capacity but overlook other factors that become important at scale.
As backup environments grow, organizations must consider:
- Recovery performance
- Retention management
- Storage efficiency
- Backup validation
- Administrative overhead
- Disaster recovery planning
Simply adding more storage is not always enough.
The company needed a scalable architecture designed for long-term growth.
Assessing the Environment
Epis Technology performed a detailed review of the Microsoft 365 backup environment.
We analyzed:
- Current storage consumption
- Data growth trends
- Recovery objectives
- Retention requirements
- Compliance obligations
- Future expansion plans
This allowed us to build a strategy that addressed both immediate needs and future growth.
Building a Scalable Backup Architecture
Our goal was to create a platform capable of supporting continued expansion without requiring major redesigns every few years.
The solution focused on:
- Storage scalability
- Efficient backup operations
- Faster recovery workflows
- Simplified management
- Long-term retention support
By designing for future growth rather than current requirements alone, the company gained greater flexibility.
The Synology Infrastructure Advantage
A key component of the project involved leveraging Synology storage infrastructure to support large-scale Microsoft 365 backup operations.
The Synology environment provided:
- Centralized storage management
- Flexible expansion capabilities
- High-capacity storage pools
- Backup repository consolidation
- Simplified administration
This allowed the company to scale backup capacity without significantly increasing management complexity.
Improving Recovery Performance
Growth is only valuable if recovery remains practical.
Epis Technology optimized the environment to improve:
- Mailbox recovery workflows
- SharePoint restoration
- OneDrive recovery
- Teams data restoration
- Backup validation procedures
Maintaining recovery efficiency became just as important as expanding storage capacity.
Managing Long-Term Retention
As the organization grew, regulatory and operational requirements demanded longer retention periods.
We implemented strategies to support:
- Historical email retention
- Project archive preservation
- Compliance-driven storage
- Long-term recovery points
- Data lifecycle management
This helped balance storage growth with business requirements.
Preparing for Future Expansion
One of the biggest goals of the project was avoiding future scalability problems.
The environment was designed to support:
- Additional users
- New departments
- Acquisitions
- Expanded Microsoft 365 usage
- Continued data growth
By planning proactively, the company reduced the likelihood of disruptive infrastructure upgrades later.
The Results
Following implementation, the organization successfully scaled from approximately 5 TB to over 30 TB of protected Microsoft 365 data.
Benefits included:
- Improved backup scalability
- Better storage visibility
- Faster recovery workflows
- Simplified management
- Stronger business continuity planning
- Greater confidence in future growth
Most importantly, the company gained a backup environment capable of growing alongside the business.
Why Microsoft 365 Backup Growth Is Accelerating
In 2025 and 2026, organizations are generating more cloud-based data than ever before.
Growth drivers include:
- Increased collaboration
- Remote work
- Teams adoption
- Larger SharePoint environments
- Expanding compliance requirements
- Longer retention policies
Businesses need backup strategies that can scale with these demands.
About Epis Technology
Epis Technology helps organizations protect and scale Microsoft 365 environments through backup automation, Synology consulting, storage optimization, and disaster recovery planning. The company specializes in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace backups, large-scale storage solutions, fully managed PC backups, Synology deployment and support, and business continuity services.
By combining scalable backup architecture, resilient storage infrastructure, and proactive planning, Epis Technology helps businesses manage rapid data growth while maintaining reliable protection and recovery capabilities.