The Top 10 Microsoft 365 (Office 365) Backup And Recovery Solutions

Acquired by OpenText in 2021, CloudAlly is a leader in cloud-based data protection for small- to midsized businesses. Over 14,000 organizations globally rely on CloudAlly’s SaaS data protection platform to secure them against malicious and accidental data loss. CloudAlly Backup for Microsoft 365 is their enterprise-grade backup and recovery solution that integrates seamlessly with all Microsoft 365 plans. The solution was the first commercially available cloud backup solution for Microsoft 365, and supports backup and recovery for all M365 data (including Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks), as well as Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint.

CloudAlly Backup for Microsoft 365 automatically creates daily backups of all M365 data, but the schedule for backups can be customized by admins. The platform integrates with Active Directory to automatically discover new users, so employee data is backed up as soon as they’re enrolled at the company. CloudAlly offers unlimited data retention and immutable storage to minimize accidental and malicious data loss. For added security, all backups are encrypted at rest using AES 256-bit encryption, and the platform offers support for two-factor authentication via OAuth and Okta. Organizations can choose which of CloudAlly’s global data centers to send their backups to—with options in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Germany, and Australia—helping to ensure compliance with data protection standards such as ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR. To restore data, admins can perform granular searches to find the exact data they’d like to recover, then choose from multiple recovery options, including historical snapshot, cross-user restore, non-destructive restore, and mailbox recovery.

CloudAlly offers enterprise-grade backup and recovery for Microsoft 365 data, yet the platform is easy to manage thanks to its intuitive interface, out-of-the-box configurations, and 24/7/365 customer support. As such, CloudAlly Backup for Microsoft 365 is a strong solution for any SMB looking to secure their MS365 data long-term. We also recommend CloudAlly as being particularly suitable for educational institutions, as paid subscriptions are only required for staff accounts—students are free—, and non-profit organizations, as there are discounts available.

Spanning, a Kaseya company, is a leading provider of backup and recovery solutions for SaaS applications, protecting over 10,000 organizations globally. With Spanning Backup for Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), businesses can safeguard critical data in Microsoft 365 applications, including Office, Mail, Teams, Calendar, OneDrive, and SharePoint. The solution is used by more than 2.4 million users.

Spanning Backup for Microsoft 365 offers automated daily backups, saving time for IT administrators and allowing them to focus on other critical tasks. The solutions provides quick backup and recovery capabilities to help mitigate risks associated with ransomware attacks, malicious file erasure, and accidental errors. Comprehensive data protection capabilities optimize workloads while ensuring maximum security.

In addition to automated backups, Spanning Backup for Microsoft 365 (Office 365) allows administrators to initiate on-demand and more frequent backups if required. Its data search feature enables rapid restoration and advanced search capabilities for all data in Microsoft Office 365 applications. Admin users can perform backups and restore data for themselves and any licensed user within a tenant, and Spanning Backup end user self-service enables end users to find and restore files seamlessly.

Spanning Backup for Microsoft 365 includes various advanced administrator options and comprehensive status monitoring, giving administrators the control they need to effectively manage and monitor backups. It alerts administrators of backup issues, maintains an immutable audit log, and offers additional features such as automatic Active Directory sync, regional data centre options, and individual license management.

Spanning’s multi-layered approach to data protection ensures data security, availability, and compliance. It is built on Amazon Web Service (AWS) with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, global data centers, and compliance certifications including SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR. Its security features include strong encryption, grouped access, intrusion detection, and UE-EU Privacy Shield Certification.

Alcion, a Veeam-funded company, offers a Microsoft 365 backup solution that leverages an AI-driven approach to protect data from threats such as ransomware and malware, along with mitigating the risks of accidental data loss and system outages. Trusted by Microsoft 365 admins globally, Alcion is highlighted here for its proactive responses to 3rd party threat signals and its ability to detect ransomware and malware, ensuring clean backups.

Alcion is user-friendly and designed for an effortless backup experience. From signup to the first backup, the process is quick and straightforward, with a modern user interface that simplifies backup and restore workflows. The service requires zero training and has no agents, software, or system management overhead. Utilizing AI and predictive analytics, Alcion can intelligently protect your data by scheduling backups during peak user activity and initiating proactive backups upon detection of external threats.

The Alcion backup platform is resilient and fault-tolerant, purpose-built for Microsoft 365. Its high-throughput data mover allows for speedier backups and restores. This robust data protection platform is compatible with the most commonly used Microsoft 365 services – Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams.

Alcion provides three distinct methods for initiating backups: on-demand, AI-driven intelligently scheduled and proactive, based on detected ransomware threats. The platform also allows administrators to restore individual items or collections of items from a given backup, providing options as to where the restored data should go: either in a different location, the original location, or to a different resource altogether. Alternatively, Alcion provides an ‘Export’ feature, allowing administrators to download and save items locally. Alcion implements a multi-tiered retention policy: 3 backups per day are retained for 30 days, 1 daily backup for 90 days, 1 weekly backup for 26 weeks, and then monthly backups forever (infinite retention). This ensures a comprehensive backup coverage, with older backups being methodically rolled over for extended retention.

ManageEngine RecoveryManager Plus is an enterprise backup and restoration tool that supports Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Exchange environments. Using RecoveryManager Plus, IT managers can back up and restore objects, sites, or mailboxes from a single console, ensuring data availability across numerous cloud and on-premises applications.

RecoveryManager Plus provides key features such as restart-free recovery, incremental backups, attribute-level restoration, and backup retention to ensure smooth recovery operations. Additionally, it offers a recycle bin feature for restoring deleted objects and their attributes along with their parent containers effortlessly. The solution supports multiple backup storage options, allowing users to store backups within their premises, Azure Blob Storage, or Azure file shares. Admins can also oversee multiple AD domains, Azure AD tenants, and Exchange organizations from a single dashboard.

With quick and easy deployment, automated backups, custom notifications, and ransomware threat mitigation, RecoveryManager Plus assists businesses in maintaining a secure and up-to-date IT environment. The platform offers a free trial as well as a paid Standard edition, with varying features and licensing options to meet the needs of organizations of different sizes.

Trusted by over 1300 companies worldwide, RecoveryManager Plus is a reliable choice for businesses seeking a one-stop solution for backing up and restoring their critical IT data.

Veeam is a global market leader in backup and recovery solutions, holding the highest market share in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and the third-largest share worldwide. 82% of Fortune 500 companies are in the Veeam client pool and trust this vendor with their data. Veeam offers a range of solutions to fit business needs, with their Backup & Replication solution being one of their most popular flagship products. However, Veeam also offers Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 as a standalone product to protect and restore Microsoft O365 data, including Office 365 mailboxes, Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, OneNote and Teams.

Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 enables users to back up their data as often as every five minutes in Microsoft’s native format, which makes file recovery much quicker. A key benefit of this solution is its flexibility. When it comes to the data restoration itself, Veeam offers 25 recovery options to cover all incidents, from complete recovery to more granular file-level recovery. Users also have the option to choose what type of retention they want; traditional item-level storage, or snapshot-based incremental storage. Organizations can store their data in whichever way best suits them: on-premise with available local storage, or in the cloud using one of many available object storage options, including AWS S3, Azure Blob and IBM Cloud.

Customers praise Veeam’s solution for being easy to manage through the user-friendly dashboard interface once configured, though the initial setup can be complex, especially for hybrid environments. Its flexibility makes Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 a strong solution for midmarket and enterprise organizations looking for reliable backup. But small businesses shouldn’t feel left out – Veeam has recently introduced Backup for Microsoft Office 365 Community Edition, which protects up to 10 users for free with no feature limitations.

Rubrik is a backup and recovery provider that offers a range of solutions for data resilience, observability, and threat remediation. Rubrik Microsoft 365 Protection is their backup and recovery solution for Microsoft 365 environments. It provides automatic data backup and recovery for Microsoft 365 applications, including Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams, and delivers advanced search tools and granular restoration to mitigate data loss.

Rubrik Microsoft 365 Protection automatically discovers new users, sites, and teams, and creates backups of all new data. Data is retained according to admin-defined retention periods. Admins can use the search tool to find specific data, then carry out granular or bulk recoveries to the original user or another location via API calls. Admins can also schedule reports into backup and recovery task status, compliance, and SLA audits, or generate reports on-demand. Rubrik’s backup solution also offers comprehensive security for backups: backups are stored in a secure environment logically isolated from the Microsoft tenant, ensuring they remain secure even if threat actors tamper with Microsoft security tools in the live production environment. It also offers role-based access controls, multi-factor authentication, and automatic classification of sensitive data. Finally, Rubrik plans to add an anomaly detection feature that monitors backups for deletions, modification, and encryption.

Rubrik’s solution is fully compatible with Microsoft 365, with API integrations that enable it to automatically detect at start securing new users, as well as troubleshoot Microsoft 365 outages. We recommend Rubrik Microsoft 365 Protection as a strong backup and recovery solution for larger enterprises looking for an effective backup solution that’s easy to deploy and manage. Its identification and classification of sensitive data, and automatic alerting on policy violations, also make this platform well-suited to organizations in highly regulated industries that are frequently handling PII.

Druva is a leading provider of resiliency tools designed to help organizations secure data stored in their endpoints, applications, and workloads, whilst ensuring compliance. inSync is Druva’s backup and recovery solution for data stored in SaaS applications, including Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, and Salesforce. inSync enables businesses to ensure productivity and business continuity in the event of accidental or malicious data loss, while helping businesses achieve (and prove) compliance with data protection and privacy standards.

Druva inSync offers automated, cloud-to-cloud backup of all Microsoft 365 data, including OneDrive, Exchange Online, SharePoint, and Teams. The platform deduplicates backups to minimize pressure on storage, while making it easier to find specific records for recovery. Admins can search for records via a full text search tool, and can 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, and it offers role-based access support for single sign-on via ADFS and Okta. Finally, the platform is FedRAMP authorized and alignment with EDRM and Department of Justice (US) requirements for legal hold management, and offers support for SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, and Privacy Shield compliance.

inSync is a cloud-native solution powered by Druva Cloud Architecture and built on AWS. This makes it very quick to deploy, and allows it to offer on-demand scalability. The platform offers strong backup for Microsoft 365 environments, as well as robust eDiscovery functionality. This, alongside its support for multiple data protection standards, makes inSync a strong backup solution for mid-market and large enterprises that need to securely backup sensitive data such as PII, PHI, and legal records.

Dell Technologies focuses on empowering organizations through digital transformation. They offer a range of solutions and products that secure IT infrastructure, individual employee devices and wider industries. Dell APEX Backup Services delivers data protection as-a-Service, securing businesses with all-in-one backup, disaster recovery, and long-term retention while eliminating the need for complex hardware installations. Dell APEX Backup Services for SaaS apps for specifically on securing data stored in Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Salesforce.

Dell APEX Backup Services for SaaS apps automatically creates point-in-time backups of all Microsoft 365 data and stores them in an isolated, immutable storage facility with no purge timeframes. Data is read and written back to the Microsoft 365 tenant via Microsoft APIs, and each connection is authenticated and encrypted. The platform offers flexible IT-led and self-service recovery options, including mailbox, individual file or bulk recovery, “in-place,” “as a copy”, and “point-in-time” recovery, and recovery outside Microsoft 365. Users can restore files in multiple formats, and the platform’s robust eDiscovery tools allow for quick file searching and export. Finally, admins can also generate detailed audit logs of employee activities to help achieve and prove compliance.

Dell APEX Backup Services are built around simplicity, agility and flexibility. Being cloud-based, the platform is easy to deploy and highly scalable. Its unlimited retention periods and highly flexible restoration options make Dell APEX Backup Services for SaaS apps a strong solution for mid-market and larger enterprises looking to backup large volumes of Microsoft 365 data, and its broad range of security features enables businesses to maintain the security and integrity of that data.

Datto, a Kaseya company, is a market-leading provider of network management, business continuity, and data protection tools for MSPs. SaaS Protection is Datto’s backup and disaster recovery solution for data stored in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace applications. SaaS Protection offers automatic backups and flexible data recovery to help MSPs secure their clients’ cloud data against malicious and accidental data loss scenarios.

Datto’s SaaS Protection automatically creates backups thrice daily of all Exchange, Tasks, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams data. One backed up, data is written out to Datto’s private cloud (with storage centers in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, and Singapore) and stored in compliance with SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type II reporting standards. Admins can configure retention periods as needed, or choose to store data indefinitely. From the multi-tenant management portal, admins can easily manage their clients’ licenses, view the status of their backups, and restore or export data (including PST export for Exchange data) to a given point in time before the data loss occurred. SaaSProtection 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’s backup and recovery solution is designed specifically for MSPs. Users praise the platform for its ease of deployment and client onboarding, as well as its granular recovery capabilities. Its customizable and long-term retention periods, plus its compliance with SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type II make SaaS Protection particularly well-suited to MSPs protecting clients that are working with highly sensitive data or must comply with strict data protection regulations, such as those in the healthcare, finance, and legal sectors.

Acronis is a leading backup software, disaster recovery and secure data access provider. They offer backup and recovery services for Microsoft 365 via their Cyber Protect Cloud solution, which also includes endpoint protection, email security, and data loss prevention (DLP). Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Backup offers file backup and disaster recovery, as well as a secure file sync and share feature. It is one of the fastest recovery solutions on the market, using Acronis’ runVM technology to provide instantaneous recovery that minimizes user disruption and boosts company productivity.

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Backup solution offers proactive ransomware protection powered by AI technology, which prevents unauthorized file modification and encryption. It verifies the authenticity of backup copies before restoration to ensure complete security, and restoration is immediate and reliable. Admins can manage all data protection tasks through the solution’s management console. This console is web-based, so admins can assess information no matter their location. This flexibility also applies to the protection itself; Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Backup protects all company data sources across 20+ different virtual, physical, cloud and mobile platforms, so that data is always secure no matter its size or where it’s stored.

Acronis’ data protection solutions are industry targeted, with solutions designed specifically for automotive, healthcare, energy and government verticals. Customer reviews report that the solution is easy to deploy and manage across both Windows and Linux servers. On top of this, Acronis’ products and documentation are available in 25 languages. All of this makes Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Backup an ideal backup and recovery solution for medium to large global enterprises looking for data protection tailored to their industry needs.