GUEST PRODUCT REVIEW: Microsoft 365 data, including emails and services such as SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, OneDrive and Teams, are critical elements of most modern organizations. Losing this data can lead to prolonged downtime, reputational damage and compliance issues. To avoid that, organizations need a reliable tool to back up Office 365 accounts and data items.
As there are multiple Microsoft Office 365 backup solutions on the market, choosing the best one can require thorough analysis. In this post, we compare the top 6 O365 backup solutions, focusing on the features, capabilities and advantages of each one.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication
NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 in the NAKIVO solution allows you to back up your SaaS data, including items in Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online. This solution for Microsoft 365 data backup enables you to optimize storage space usage through incremental backups. In addition, change tracking technologies can also help with network load reduction and cutting backup windows. You can protect up to 5 Microsoft 365 users for free or download the free trial and test the solution’s functionality with no limitations for 15 days.
The Office 365 backup solution from NAKIVO provides both local and cloud data storage. You can store local backups in Windows and Linux repositories, NAS, CIFS/NFS shares and deduplication appliances. This reduces your dependency on the vendor’s cloud storage availability, which is useful considering Microsoft's shared responsibility model. However, cloud backups to Amazon S3, Wasabi, Azure Blob and Backblaze B2 can ensure global data availability and recoverability.
Another key feature is the anti-ransomware protection of Office 365 backups in both types of repositories. You can enable immutability and protect backup data from encryption or deletion by ransomware. Combined with flexible retention policies that provide recovery points that you can rotate weekly, monthly, or yearly, these features can help you implement reliable data archiving and timely disposal to maintain compliance.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides flexible recovery options. You can restore entire Microsoft 365 accounts or individual folders, emails or items to satisfy tight recovery objectives. Advanced search helps to quickly find the required items for swift recovery to original or different locations, easily responding to compliance requests.
With all of the functionalities mentioned above, in addition to the friendly web-based interface and advanced management features, NAKIVO’s Microsoft 365 backup pricing remains affordable. The subscription license starts at $0.80 per user/month, with 24/7 support included.
Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud
Users looking for a combination of modern cyber protection and reliable Office 365 email backup might find Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud suitable. Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud offers endpoint security, anti-ransomware capabilities and regular backups, making it one of the best Office 365 backup solutions.
Acronis applies AI-driven technologies to enable real-time detection of ransomware threats, keeping your Microsoft M365 backup data safe from malicious encryption. Additionally, the feature set here includes Microsoft Office 365 disaster recovery capabilities. Overall, Acronis can help organizations create multi-layered backup security systems that enable fast data recovery in emergency situations.
On the downside, Acronis can be difficult for admins who need central management capabilities, especially MSPs. You need to manage individual accounts for various departments or clients separately. In addition, the solution requires separate licenses for each user account, which can make it quite expensive. Lastly, you have to deal with manual configurations every time you want to set service accounts and access permissions.
AvePoint Cloud Backup
AvePoint Cloud Backup is an Office 365 backup solution that helps IT teams ensure regulatory compliance and powerful data security. Reliable and convenient data governance helps your organization maintain data protection and storage policies in accordance with legal requirements.
AvePoint Cloud Backup is arguably one of the best Office 365 backup tools in its field. Primarily focused on compliance and governance, the solution is trusted by more than 16,000 clients.
Still, Ave Point Cloud Backup is limited to cloud or FTP/SFTP storage, which can be a deal-breaker for those who require on-premises Office 365 backups. Additionally, the solution can be difficult to set up and configure for the first time. Multiple workflows involve in-depth automation, but you need an IT team constantly monitoring your Microsoft 365 backup data to optimize compliance and performance. Another issue is the solution’s total cost which might be unaffordable for SMBs.
Spanning Backup for Office 365
Spanning is one of the top SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams and Exchange Online backup solutions. Spanning delivers backup administration tools that provide on-demand and automated workflows, monitoring, end-user backup management and point-in-time folder structure snapshots. You can also use granular search capabilities to locate and recover items quickly to comply with regulatory requests and achieve strict recovery time objectives.
Spanning relies on AWS cloud to store Office 365 backup data which ensures global accessibility. However, if you want to keep your Office 365 backup on-premise, Spanning is not the best choice.
Keep in mind that this solution has particular limitations that organizations might want to avoid. For example, you can’t change the daily backup timing, which is set to 12 PM. To sum up, if you run a cloud-based environment and don’t want to have any on-premise hardware for backups, Spanning Backup for Office 365 is worth considering.
Rubrik Microsoft 365 Protection
Rubrik delivers efficient and automated SaaS protection for Office 365 data. Similar to other solutions on the list, Rubrik Microsoft 365 Protection is a versatile solution: you can protect OneDrive, SharePoint, Exchange Online and Teams. Data security enhancement and convenient management are achieved with adjustable task tracking and reports, access control and granular search.
Rubrik Microsoft 365 Protection can automatically monitor your SaaS environment to detect new users, sites and teams. The solution can then add the detected data to backup workflows without manual intervention. Additionally, Rubrik Microsoft 365 Protection enhances troubleshooting and compatibility benefits via powerful API integrations.
Unfortunately, you cannot learn about Rubrik’s O365 backup pricing without contacting their sales department. In addition, the solution can be difficult to master if you don’t have IT expertise. The Rubrik solution is most suitable for enterprises that need an extensive feature set regardless of the cost.
Datto SaaS Protection
This O365 backup solution is created for managed service providers. Datto SaaS Protection enables short RPO and reliable automation of data protection workflows. Datto can back up Teams, Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and Tasks data to the provided private cloud storage. This solution also simplifies data management for admins with advanced retention configurations.
The multi-tenant management dashboard enhances backup data control and recovery. Granular recovery via the advanced search tool enables flexible recoveries of individual data objects or entire accounts. If the original data is lost or unavailable, you can restore data to the M365 account of your choice and resume operations.
Datto SaaS Protection is a specialized solution tailored to match MSP needs. This Microsoft 365 backup software is easy to deploy and set up in a multi-tenant, customized environment. The price is calculated per license, but you still need to contact Datto sales specialists for a quote.
Conclusion
These are the 6 best Office 365 backup solutions for 2024. Consider installing free trials and evaluating every solution in your own environment. The final choice depends on your organization’s needs and budget.
Understanding how to backup Office 365 effectively with a trusted solution can help ensure your data is secure and always accessible.
Consider installing free trials and evaluating every solution in your own environment.