7 Reasons Why You Should Back up Slack

1. Absence of native recycle bin

2. Data access limitations 

3. Limitations of Slack’s native retention features

• Manual effort: Slack’s native retention lacks automated recovery features. In case of data loss, administrators are required to manually export and restore the preserved data.

• Channel deletion: Retention does not apply to messages in deleted channels. If you delete a channel, messages and revisions will be permanently deleted, regardless of your workspace retention settings.

• Limited data protection for non-enterprise plans: Slack offers advanced data protection features only for the Enterprise Grid subscription, which is expensive compared to regular plans. 

• Lack of targeted preservation: Because legal holds in Slack are applied at the user level, there is no direct way to target specific channels or conversations for preservation. This means that all content associated with that user will be preserved regardless of its relevance.

• Lack of granular retention: Retention policy cannot be set based on the file type nor can it be applied to individual conversations.

4. Data loss due to accidental deletions, data corruption, and security breaches

• Accidental deletions and user errors: Backing up Slack data is crucial to protect against accidental deletions and human errors. A robust backup solution enables quick recovery of lost conversations, files, and attachments, ensuring your team's workflow remains uninterrupted.

• Data corruption and technical failures: Data corruption and technical failures can occur unexpectedly, leading to the loss of critical information within Slack. By having regular backups, you can restore Slack data to a previous state in case of data corruption or system failures.

• Security breaches and data loss: While Slack implements robust security measures, no system is completely immune to cyberattacks. In September 2022, Uber had to shut down its company Slack channels after a major security breach incident. Taking regular backups of your Slack data ensures that you can easily: 

  • Recover from data loss due to cyberattacks or unauthorized access. 

  • Restore Slack data and ensure business continuity in the face of security incidents. 

5. Compliance and legal requirements

• Adherence to data privacy laws (like GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA) by maintaining control over data storage and retention.

• Preservation of a complete historical record of Slack communications, files, and attachments for regulatory compliance.

• Facilitation of e-discovery and legal hold processes, allowing for easy retrieval of relevant data during legal proceedings and minimizing legal risks.

6. Business continuity and disaster recovery

• Minimizing downtime during Slack outages: In July 2023, Slack faced a global outage that prevented users from sending and receiving messages on the platform. Regularly backing up Slack data helps to minimize downtime in the event of Slack outages, which are not uncommon. 

• Restoring communication history and files: Slack serves as a repository of your team's communication history and losing this data can be a significant setback. However, with a comprehensive backup solution, you can restore your Slack communication history and files, allowing your team to pick up where they left off.

• Ensuring business continuity during feature changes, downgrades, or retention policy modifications: Slack, like any other collaboration platform, can face service disruptions, feature changes, or data retention policy alterations, all of which may result in data loss or inaccessibility. For instance, while retention policies help keep your Slack workspace tidy by automatically deleting old messages and files, they may inadvertently remove important data that you might need later. Having a backup of your Slack data ensures that your business operations continue smoothly, irrespective of any feature changes or retention policy alterations.

7. Data loss due to third-party app integrations

• Many Slack users are unaware of the permissions enabled when a third-party application is linked to their Slack account. These permissions can allow these apps to access, modify, or even delete sensitive Slack data.

• Using third-party services exposes your data to external risks. A breach in any of these services could compromise the integrity of your Slack data.

• By regularly backing up your Slack workspace, you can safeguard against the potential risks associated with third-party app integrations and restore it to a safe snapshot in the event of data corruption.

Third-party cloud backup tools to back up Slack data

Why should you back up your Slack data using SysCloud?

• Automated Slack backups and automatic resolution of API errors.

• Effortlessly export threads, channels, direct messages, or even the entire workspace in JSON format.

• Restore threads within a channel, direct messages, and entire channels with just one click.

• Search for content inside conversations, files, channels, and user groups using keywords, across all your workspaces.