Office 365 Backup Solutions: Recovery Tools Comparison

Before delving into Office 365 backup options it is important to know what is available as part of Microsoft Office 365. Microsoft Office 365 provides built-in data protection features including encryption and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies. Advanced message encryption, DLP, and Identity and Access Management (IAM) helps protect your Microsoft Office 365 data both at rest and in motion.

Yet in a SaaS offering like Microsoft Office 365, a shared responsibility model is in operation. Microsoft as a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) is responsible for global infrastructure and redundancy up to the application level. Beyond that you are responsible for protecting and maintaining the data stored in Microsoft Office 365. 

As a part of the failover and redundancy that Microsoft provides, data replicas are created and managed on Microsoft infrastructure, thereby minimizing Microsoft Office 365 downtime. As a user of Microsoft Office 365, you do not have access to manage or access this data redundancy. So, during any user error, accidental deletions, access to earlier versions, or cybersecurity challenges like ransomware, you must have a data backup solution that allows you to manage, access, and restore your data. In a cloud-based shared responsibility model, you must ensure that your data is protected and accessible.

Here are 3 popular third-party Office 365 backup solutions for important SaaS applications like Office 365, Google Suite, Salesforce, and others.

Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365

Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 removes the possibility of loss of data and control over your Microsoft Office 365. This makes sure that your data is always hyper available and protected. It protects your data from accidental deletion, security threats, and retention policy gaps. It also quickly recovers and restores Microsoft Office 365 files, emails, sites, libraries, lists, and other items. The eDiscovery of Office 365 feature helps you to meet legal and compliance requirements by its backup archives.

Key Features

1. It backs up data from Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business. This helps you to back up data from all the storage sources used by all the users of your organization.
2. The back up speed is 30 times faster.
3. It backs up to any location including on-premises and cloud.
4. It provides easier data recovery.
5. The Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) helps in data back up every 5 minutes to ensure all data are backed up regularly.
6. Backup Exchange and SharePoint on-premises reduces impact on your datacenter by allowing you to set the frequency and timing of your backups.
7. You can store your backup in location of your choice. It can be on-premises or public cloud like Microsoft Azure, GCP, Amazon Web Services, or a local service provider.
8. You can protect data posted and shared with Microsoft Teams chats, files and sites as Microsoft Teams data on Exchange Online and SharePoint Online.

Key Benefits

1. It helps in reducing overhead expenses by efficient scaling.
2. It makes use of eDiscovery of Microsoft Office 365 data.
3. It ensures Microsoft Office 365 security and compliance are met.
4. It smoothens on-premises and Microsoft Office 365 backup.

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud provides backup and AI-based anti-malware, antivirus, and endpoint protection management. Integration of AI and automation helps users with unmatched performance and reliability. It eases the complexity making it user friendly. Reduced complexity, automation, and AI increases the productivity and decreases the operational costs.

Key Features

1. It provides protection against ransomware.
2. It covers more than 20 workload types including mobile, cloud, physical, and virtual.
3. It provides centralized protection management.
4. It provisions endpoint in minutes.
5. It offers disaster recovery protection that helps you to run your business continuously.
6. It delivers higher protection through advanced packs for security, backup, management, and disaster recovery.

Key Benefits

1. Reduction in risk with next generation cyber protection.
2. Increase in profitability that boosts monthly recurring revenue.
3. Reduced cost as it consolidates protection services with an integrated solution.

Comprehensive Security Features

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud comes with a host of advanced features that provides:

1. Cybersecurity
2. Backup and recovery
3. Secure file sync and share
4. Centralized protection management and endpoint provisioning to remotely assist clients
5. Disaster Recovery
6. Seamless integration and automation with service providers like RMM and PSA tools, hosting control panels, and billing systems
7. Custom integrations and automation through RESTful APIs and SDKs

Advanced Packs

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud provides Advanced Packs to enhance and optimize cyber protection for the most of the critical workloads. The Advanced Packs are:

1. Advanced Backup: It offers continuous data protection, backed-up data validation, visibility on protection status of the assets.
2. Advanced Security: It addresses broader scope of threat that has improvised detection rate and speed with smart protection plans and forensics. It also provides smart protection plans with additional protection for backups and recovery.
3. Advanced Management: You can have better control over your IT assets and security with built-in fail-safe patching technology. It provides disk drive health monitoring, software inventory collection, and seamless report scheduling.
4. Advanced Disaster Recovery: Ensures immediate availability of systems with instant data availability to put your business back on track. It increases the efficiency of orchestration, runbooks, and automatic failover.

Datto SaaS Protection for Office 365

Datto SaaS Protection for Office 365 automatically backs up Microsoft Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Calendar and Contacts thrice a day. It is SOC 2 Type II audited. It supports HIPAA compliance.

It facilitates centralized management as it allows partners to manage backups, view restores, and monitor activities throughout all customers on a simplified dashboard. This helps you to search emails, contacts, individual files and entire folders easily. You can either restore files to the user’s account or download them.

Key Features

1. Data backup thrice a day.
2. Data encryption both at rest and during transit.
3. It supplies data controls and monitoring tools such as audit logs, uptime and availability SLAs along with export capabilities.
4. Its robust search filters make it easier to quickly search backed up files and folders.
5. It allows easy and quick restores and exports.

Key Benefits

1. It protects the users and network from ransomware.
2. It reduces the risk of data loss to a great extent.
3. It supports to adhere to compliance standards.
4. It prevents any additional costs and data loss due to inactive licenses.
5. It averts data loss due to permanent deletion, while restoring files, and within previous drafts.

Office 365 Backup: Conclusion

Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud and Datto SaaS Protection for Office 365 are 3 among a growing list of 3rd party backup and recovery tools that help companies using SaaS offerings like Microsoft Office 365, Google Suite, Salesforce. These tools provide a range of best practices, policies and features including automatic backup, centralized management, data encryption, data controls and monitoring tools.

Feel free to contact us for more details and support.