It’s important that organizations have robust backup plans in place for Microsoft SharePoint data to ensure that they can navigate data loss events and outages. SharePoint is an effective tool that allows users to easily create and publish online hosted sites that can share data with clients and customers. However, deleted SharePoint items are only held for 93 days before they’re gone for good. For this reason, we recommend that all organizations consider a third-party backup solution to secure SharePoint data.
There are a lot of third-party providers offering secure backup for M365 and SharePoint. These solutions integrate directly into the M365 environment via API and take secure backups which can be easily recovered int the case of accidental data loss or cybersecurity incident. These backup solutions allow for an efficient and secure backup of your SharePoint data including sites, libraries, and lists, either to an alternate location or the cloud.
Comparing these solutions and finding the right tool for your organization can be tricky.
Our technical team has put together a shortlist of top picks for backup solutions for Microsoft SharePoint based on technical testing, customer feedback, and key features such as backup, recovery, storage management, security, and scalability.
Backupify for Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based backup and recovery solution that secures SharePoint Online site collections, document libraries, and templates against data loss from deletions, cyberattacks, or outages. Built on Datto’s private cloud, it offers automated protection and easy restoration to maintain SharePoint data integrity.
Why We Picked Backupify for Microsoft 365: We picked Backupify for its automated tri-daily backups and precise recovery options, which keep SharePoint data accessible and organized with minimal effort.
Best Features: Backupify runs automated backups every eight hours for SharePoint Online, covering primary, custom, group, and team sites, with on-demand backups for immediate data capture. It preserves document libraries, folder structures, and site templates for consistent organization. Granular recovery restores individual items like pages or documents without affecting current data, supported by targeted search capabilities. The solution uses AES 256-bit encryption, SOC 2 Type II compliance, and geo-redundant storage. A unified console manages backups for SharePoint, Exchange, OneDrive, and Teams.
Strengths:
Pricing: Contact the Backupify team for pricing details.
Who it’s for: Backupify for Microsoft 365 is ideal for IT teams and organizations of all sizes needing reliable, automated backup and recovery for SharePoint Online to ensure data availability and compliance.
AFI Microsoft 365 Backup is a comprehensive solution for data protection in Office 365. The solution is quick to deploy and supports fast, regular SharePoint Backups, allowing up to 24 backups per day. AFI provides precision backup options for various types of M365 data such as MS Teams, Entra ID, and Exchange Online.
AFI’s solution provides a range of features to help admins quickly recover data when needed. The solution supports instant full-text searches across all backups for faster recovery of specific data. The admin console provides previews and instant offline exports of single items or complete user backups in multiple formats. AFI also supports point-in-time recovery and perpetual versioning.
Additional standout qualities of AFI Microsoft 365 Backup include robust ransomware protection, efficient handling of API errors, end-to-end automation for ease of management, and comprehensive access control and security settings. The solution also integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Entra ID for scaled management and access control.
AFI Microsoft 365 Backup is a comprehensive backup platform that offers wide-ranging data protection for Office 365 and SharePoint. Its accessible features and extensive capabilities make it an efficient solution for preventing data loss and responding to security threats swiftly.
Datto M365 Backup provides reliable and comprehensive detection, protection, and recovery of Microsoft 365 data, designed for MSPs. The solution effectively defends against known and unknown cyber threats, targeting SharePoint data, as well as common accidental data loss situations.
Datto M365 Backup offers a unique multi-layered protection for Microsoft 365 data, combining robust phishing prevention and backup. Datto’s solution offers comprehensive security for Exchange, Calendar, OneDrive, and SharePoint. The platform allows 3x daily backups with flexible recovery options.
Datto M365 Backup also ensures efficient data management and compliance. It offers simplified pricing, making cost management straightforward. Datto’s solution is scalable for large MSPs, allowing teams to safeguard against both cyber threats and user error. Restoring data in the case of an incident is fast and straightforward.
We recommend Datto M365 Backup as a reliable solution for safeguarding Microsoft 365 data. It delivers robust protection against cyber threats, efficient data backup and recovery, and helps in meeting data compliance requirements. With a focus on ease-of-use and scalability, it is a strong choice for MSPs seeking solid and flexible cloud data backup.
Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 is a risk management and data recovery solution that protects and backs up critical business data on Microsoft 365’s ecosystem. Veeam is trusted by major companies across the globe, holding a significant market share in backup and recovery solutions.
Veeam provides powerful features that provide data protection on Microsoft 365. It allows data backup every five minutes, offers 25 recovery options ranging from comprehensive recovery to granular file-level recovery, and gives the flexibility regarding data storage either on-premise or in the cloud. Storage options include AWS S3, Azure Blob, or IBM Cloud. Veeam supports data restoration in Microsoft’s native format, ensuring a quicker recovery process.
Veeam’s additional strengths include a user-friendly dashboard interface and granular customizable policies. Veeam also ensures data security with features like 256-bit encryption, MFA, and role-based access control.
Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 is an all-in-one solution that delivers a secure, trustworthy, and flexible approach for Microsoft 365 data backup. Veeam offers a versatile platform, scalable for organizations of all sizes.
We recommend that organizations looking to backup SharePoint online should work with a dedicated third-party backup provider. There are several M365 backup solutions available that cover SharePoint data alongside other Microsoft 365 services, such as Microsoft Outlook, Teams, Exchange Online, and OneDrive.
Backup solutions for Microsoft 365 typically integrate to the M365 via API. This provides access to your entire Microsoft 365 data set which can then be securely backed up using continuous or scheduled cloud-to-cloud backups. Essentially, this means a snapshot of your M365 environment is regularly taken and securely stored in a third-party cloud service. Most services automate regular backups up to several times a day to ensure up-to-date versions of files are created. As new employees join, they will be automatically identified, and their data will be added to the backup.
Backup solutions for M365 typically provide a management console where admins can manage all data backups and users, with audits and logs to enforce secure access and compliance policies.
In the case of a data loss incident, you can quickly restore SharePoint data from the backups taken to your live Microsoft environment. This is achieved via granular data search and recovery features so you can restore specific users, files, mailboxes, sites and more, without wiping data already in the live environment.
When comparing a backup solution for Microsoft SharePoint Online, consider the following features:
Most backup and recovery solutions for SharePoint offer a fairly similar feature-set, but the granular use cases are where differences start to emerge. All of the services on this list offer a modern user interface with secure backups. Most also are compliant with all major data protection regulations such as GDPR.
However, organizations with granular industry specific compliance regulations such as HIPAA compliance may require varying retention periods for different data types and a substantial or unlimited storage capacity. We also recommend security features such as encryption, role-based access, and MFA for added to the backup solution itself.
Joel is the Director of Content and a co-founder at Expert Insights; a rapidly growing media company focussed on covering cybersecurity solutions. He’s an experienced journalist and editor with 8 years’ experience covering the cybersecurity space. He’s reviewed hundreds of cybersecurity solutions, interviewed hundreds of industry experts and produced dozens of industry reports read by thousands of CISOs and security professionals in topics like IAM, MFA, zero trust, email security, DevSecOps and more. He also hosts the Expert Insights Podcast and co-writes the weekly newsletter, Decrypted. Joel is driven to share his team’s expertise with cybersecurity leaders to help them create more secure business foundations.
Craig MacAlpine is CEO and Founder of Expert Insights. Before founding Expert Insights in August 2018, Craig spent 10 years as CEO and founder of EPA Cloud, an email security provider that rebranded as VIPRE Email Security following its acquisition by Ziff Davies, formerly J2Global (NASQAQ: ZD) in 2013. Craig is a passionate security innovator with over 20 years of experience helping organizations to stay secure with cutting-edge information security and cybersecurity solutions. Using his extensive experience in the email security industry, he founded Expert Insights with the singular goal of helping IT professionals and CISOs to cut through the noise and find the right cybersecurity solutions they need to protect their organizations.