Veeam is a market leading backup solution that offers a comprehensive platform for protecting Microsoft 365, including Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams data. The platform is used by over 14 million users globally. The platform is easy to manage and deploy, allowing you to securely backup Microsoft 365 to any location, whether on-premises, or in the cloud.
It is vital for Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) users to have a comprehensive and adaptable backup and recovery solution in place. Such a solution ensures the safeguarding of data by creating a snapshot of files, databases, or entire computer systems, which is then stored on a separate device. This provides protection against ransomware attacks (where hackers seize data and demand a ransom for its release) and enables users to restore any accidentally deleted data.
While Microsoft 365 does offer native data backup capabilities, a third-party solution ensures that you have robust protection in place. This allows you more extensive control over your own data than keeping everything tied up in one cloud service – this can be important for compliance and legal hold purposes.
In this article, we’ll consider some of the top competitors to Veeam Backup and Recovery for Office 365, highlighting key features including real-time backups, data restoration, role-based access management, and pricing.
Backupify is an automated backup and recovery solution designed for enterprises utilizing Microsoft 365. It focuses on preventing data loss caused by deletions, ransomware attacks, and app failures. To achieve this, Backupify takes point-in-time snapshots of each users’ Microsoft 365 applications – including Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams – as often as three times per day. It offers intelligent retry logic to navigate API throttling and expedite the backup process, new user detection and archiving for cost-saving, and a cloud-managed user interface that eliminates the need for physical infrastructure. In addition, Backupify offers granular search and restore functions to recover files and folders, and it can even restore sharing permissions.
Users can setup Backupify in just five minutes. Once deployed, Backupify reduces the risk of lost data and time, in addition to cutting down unnecessary licensing costs due to inactive licenses. It offers unlimited storage options and encrypts data at rest and in transit. The solution can facilitate SOC 2 Type II auditing, as well as supporting HIPAA compliance needs. Overall, Backupify offers businesses an automated, secure, and easy to use solution for safeguarding their critical Microsoft 365 data.
With over 14,000 organizations globally relying on their SaaS data protection platform, CloudAlly is a leader in cloud-based data backup and recovery. CloudAlly Backup for Microsoft 365 seamlessly integrates with all Microsoft 365 plans and provides comprehensive backup and recovery for all M365 data, including Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint.
The platform automatically creates daily backups of all M365 data, while offering administrators the flexibility to customize the backup schedule. CloudAlly ensures data integrity with unlimited data retention and immutable storage, minimizing the risk of accidental or malicious data loss. Organizations can select their preferred global data center with options in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Germany, and Australia. This enables compliance with data protection standards like ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR.
When it comes to data restoration, administrators have granular search capabilities to find specific data for recovery. Multiple recovery options are available, including historical snapshots, cross-user restores, non-destructive restores, and mailbox recovery. CloudAlly is an excellent long-term solution for SMBs seeking to secure their Microsoft 365 data.
Acronis is a leading provider of backup software, disaster recovery, and secure data access solutions. They offer comprehensive backup and recovery services for Microsoft 365 through their Cyber Protect Cloud solution. This solution also offers extensive endpoint protection, email security, and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) features.
Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Backup supports over 20 different virtual, physical, cloud, and mobile platforms, ensuring comprehensive data protection for businesses of any size. It also provides industry-specific solutions for automotive, healthcare, energy, and government sectors. Customer reviews praise its ease of deployment and management on both Windows and Linux servers. We would recommend this platform for medium to large enterprises seeking tailored data protection solutions that meet industry-specific needs.
Datto SaaS Protection is a backup and disaster recovery solution for SaaS applications, including Microsoft 366. It automatically creates backups of all Exchange, Tasks, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams data up to three times a day. Data is stored in Datto’s private cloud, which is compliant with SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type II reporting standards.
Administrators can configure retention periods as needed or choose to store data indefinitely. They can also manage their clients’ licenses, view the status of their backups, and restore or export data to a given point in time before the data loss occurred. Datto SaaS Protection offers highly flexible restoration options, including cross-user restore, and the ability to restore individual objects or whole accounts while retaining file structure. The platform also offers a search tool, which makes it easier to locate specific data that needs to be restored. Datto SaaS Protection is a strong option to consider for organizations looking to backup M365 and Google Workspace data.
Dell APEX Backup Services for SaaS apps is a cloud-based backup and disaster recovery solution for SaaS applications, including Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Salesforce. It automatically creates point-in-time backups of all your data and stores it in an isolated, immutable storage facility. This means that your data is always protected, even if there is a ransomware attack or natural disaster.
The platform offers flexible IT-led and self-service recovery options, so you can restore data as needed. You can restore individual files, mailboxes, or entire accounts. You can also restore data to a specific point in time, or to a new location outside of Microsoft 365. Dell APEX Backup Services for SaaS apps is a scalable and reliable solution that can be deployed quickly and easily. This solution is a strong choice for mid-market and larger enterprises that need to protect large volumes of Microsoft 365 data.
Druva inSync is a cloud-based backup and recovery solution for SaaS applications, including Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, and Salesforce. It automatically backs up Microsoft 365 data, including OneDrive, Exchange Online, SharePoint, and Teams. The platform deduplicates backups to minimize storage space and makes it easy to find specific records for recovery.
Administrators can search for records using a full-text search tool and restore individual items or complete full-system restores. They can also access full audit trails of all backup and user activity. inSync secures data at rest with AES 256-bit encryption and in transit with TLS 1.2. It also offers role-based access control and single sign-on via ADFS and Okta.
The platform is FedRAMP authorized and aligned with EDRM and Department of Justice (US) requirements for legal hold management. It also offers support for SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, and Privacy Shield compliance. inSync is a strong choice for mid-market and large enterprises that need to securely backup sensitive Microsoft 365 data.
Keepit is a leading cloud backup provider offering secure and scalable data recovery services for SaaS applications including Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and Google Workspace. Keepit’s backup and recovery service for M365 provides extensive coverage for Microsoft 365 applications and services, covering Teams, (including conversations, Calendar, planner, and shared files) SharePoint, Exchange Online, and OneDrive.
Keepit ensures that data is fully immutable, easily recoverable, and stored within compliance framework; this allows you to continue business operations during a cyber event and to reduce costs overall. Key features include in-place data restore to easily recover data to its original location, bulk file restores, cross-user data migration, secure links to share access to data, and cross-site SharePoint restore, enabling teams to migrate SharePoint data to a new URL. Keepit is a fully featured backup provider for SaaS applications and is a strong choice for organizations of all sizes considering backup providers for M365 and other SaaS applications.
Metallic Backup for Microsoft 365 automatically backs up all Microsoft 365 data, including Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Microsoft Project data, to a secure, air-gapped storage location. Commvault offers on-premises and cloud storage options in multiple locations around the world. This ensures that you can choose the option that best meets your compliance and organizational requirements.
Administrators can choose from pre-configured retention plans or create custom retention policies for different types of data. Metallic Backup for Microsoft 365 also offers granular search and restore options, so you can easily find and restore backups to their original location or a new one. You can also restore backups to a point-in-time, in-place, or out-of-place. If you need to, you can even enable self-service recovery options for your users.
In addition to its robust backup and restore capabilities, Metallic Backup for Microsoft 365 also offers robust security controls, including zero-trust access. This helps to protect your data against internal and external threats. We recommend this service to SMBs and enterprise organizations looking for secure M365 backup.
N-able Cove Data Protection is a cloud-based backup, archiving, and disaster recovery for Microsoft 365 domains, servers, and workstations. The solution backs up Microsoft 365 Exchange data six times per day, and SharePoint and OneDrive data four times per day. This enables granular remediation and recovery. Data that has been backed-up is kept secure (while adhering to compliance frameworks) and is retained for up to seven years in N-able’s global data centers.
N-able’s backup service for M365 is easy to deploy, with automated processes for configuring backups. The solution is designed specifically for the cloud, ensuring efficient data transfer to minimize impact on bandwidth and system resources. The solution also offers comprehensive disaster recovery, with flexible recovery of data to the location of your choice, either locally or in Microsoft Azure. The service is strongly suited for MSPs looking to backup Microsoft 365 data cross their tenants. The bottom line is that N-able is easy to deploy and manage, whilst being cost effective.
Rubrik Microsoft 365 protection provides automatic data backup and recovery for Microsoft 365 applications, including Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams. The service delivers secure data backup, advanced search tools and granular data recovery options to protect against data loss and ensure compliance. The platform automatically discovers users, sites, and teams, backing up all new data. Retention periods are flexible, with a comprehensive search tool to find and recover specific data points. Data can be recovered to the original user, or to a new location via API use.
Rubrik provides a flexible and fully featured backup service to ensure compliance. Admins can configure and schedule reports for backup and recovery task status, compliance, and audits. Backups are highly secure and isolated from the Microsoft tenant to ensure they are protected even if M365 itself has an outage or is compromised. The platform also offers robust security features including MFA and role-based access controls. We recommend Rubrik 365 Protection for mid-sized to large enterprises looking for an effective backup solution which is easy to deploy and manage, particularly for solutions looking to meet compliance regulations when handling sensitive data.
Zerto is a leading cloud data management and protection provider, with a comprehensive range of data protection, backup, recovery, and workload mobility solutions for on-premises and cloud-based enterprise environments. Zerto Backup for SaaS, powered by Keepit, is Zerto’s SaaS focused backup solution which provides robust backup for Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 data. Zerto was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2021. Zerto offers innovative disaster recovery functionality, using journal-based technology to enable admins to recover data from any point in time, right down to the second.
Zero Backup For Microsoft 365 backs up all Microsoft 365 data, including Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. By default, data is stored for 12-months, though there is no limit to retention periods. The service offers multiple granular recovery options, from specific data point recovery with an easy-to-use ‘search and restore’ feature to full user recovery options. Zerto is easy to deploy and configure, while offering a comprehensive feature-set. We recommend this service for enterprise users looking for complete data protection and disaster recovery for M365.
Veeam is a global market leading provider of enterprise backup solutions, with the highest market share across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and the third-highest share worldwide, with a popular service for backing up Microsoft 365 data. Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 protects and restores O365 mailboxes, Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, OneNote, and Teams data.
The solution empowers users to backup data as often as every five minutes, with 25 different recovery options. This customization includes granular options for file-level recovery, and complete restoration of files. Files are stored in their native format, meaning the restoration process is extremely quick. Data can be stored on-premises, or in the cloud, as you see fit. Veeam is a popular backup choice due to its flexibility, granular features, trusted platform, and security features.
Organizations using Microsoft 365 should ensure they have a comprehensive backup and recovery solution in place to protect data, ensure continuity in the case of outages, and meet compliance regulations.
There are several reasons why backup data is a good idea: human error, technical glitches, natural disasters, cyber-attacks. Any of these can come out of the blue and cause catastrophic disruption to day-to-day business operations.
Microsoft 365 is a software-as-a-service application, built on a shared responsibility model when it comes to data. This means that while Microsoft is responsible for the infrastructure supporting your data – including the datacenter, network, and applications, you (as the customer) are responsible for protecting the data itself. This responsibility extends across endpoints, accounts, and requires you to implement data backup and recovery.
It’s never a good idea to keep all of your eggs in one basket, so implementing a trusted, third-party backup and recovery solution can give piece of mind that data is secure and kept under your own control. This may also be an integral requirement for cybersecurity insurance and compliance policies that require data to be secured and accessible if required to mitigate the cost of cyber-attack.
When choosing a backup and recovery solution for Microsoft 365, there are some key features to look for. These include:
You can find a full list of Microsoft 365 backup solutions that offer all of these features here.
Joel Witts is the Content Director at Expert Insights, meaning he oversees all articles published and topics covered. He is an experienced journalist and writer, specialising in identity and access management, Zero Trust, cloud business technologies, and cybersecurity. Joel is a co-host of the Expert Insights Podcast and conducts regular interviews with leading B2B tech industry experts, including directors at Microsoft and Google. Joel holds a First Class Honours degree in Journalism from Cardiff University.
Craig MacAlpine is CEO and founder of Expert Insights. Before founding Expert Insights in August 2018, Craig spent 10 years as CEO of EPA cloud, an email security provider acquired by Ziff Davies, formerly J2Global (NASQAQ: ZD) in 2013, which has now been rebranded as VIPRE Email Security. Craig has extensive experience in the email security industry, with 20+ years of experience helping organizations to stay secure with innovative information security and cyber security solutions.