Having a comprehensive and adaptable Office 365 backup and recovery solution in place is increasingly important for Office 365 customers. Backup and recovery solutions capture a point-in-time copy of a file, database or even an entire computer and write the data out to a secondary storage device so that users can recover it in the future. This means that any data that’s deleted accidentally can easily be recovered, but it also means that files are protected against ransomware attacks. These threats involve a hacker holding data hostage until the victim pays a ransom.
Microsoft doesn’t provide native backup for Microsoft Office 365. In fact, the default settings only protect data for 30-90 days on average. This can lead to a lot of complications when organizations believe their systems are backed up, and later find that items have disappeared. But if Microsoft hasn’t covered it, you might ask, why are backup and recovery so important?
A recent report found that threats in Office 365 have grown by 63% over the last two years. Additionally, Microsoft’s 2020 Digital Defense Report stated that ransomware was the most common reason behind their incident response engagements from October 2019 to July 2020. With the risk of attack on the rise, it’s crucial that you have a strong backup and recovery solution in place to secure your data in the event of a breach.
In this article, we’ll explore the top solutions designed to protect your organization against data loss through backup and recovery. These include features such as real-time backups; rollback and restoration; role-based access to backups and reporting; and the protection of remote sites and public cloud workloads. We’ll give you some background information on the provider and the key features of each solution, as well as the type of customer that they are most suitable for.
The Top Backup And Recovery Solutions for Microsoft Office 365 includes
- Acronis | Altaro | Carbonite | Commvault | Dell EMC | Druva | Rubrik, SolarWinds | Veeam | Zerto
Acronis Cyber Backup
Innovative, AI-powered ransomware protection and instantaneous data restoration
Acronis are a leading backup software, disaster recovery and secure data access provider. Acronis’s Cyber Backup solution is a software that offers file backup and disaster recovery, as well as a secure file sync and share feature. Cyber Backup 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. Cyber Backup is available to purchase as a standalone service, or as a part of Acronis’ Cyber Protect solution, which also includes automated infrastructure, web and endpoint protection.
Acronis’ Cyber 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 Cyber Backup management console. This console is web-based, so admins can assess information no matter their location. This flexibility also applies to the protection itself; Cyber 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 Backup an ideal backup and recovery solution for medium to large global enterprises looking for data protection tailored to their industry needs.
Altaro Office 365 Backup
Unlimited backup and efficient recovery for Office 365 mailboxes and MS document libraries
Altaro are a market-leading vendor for backup and recovery solutions for SMBs and MSPs. Altaro Office 365 Backup is their MS O365 replication and restoration software solution that focuses on backing up Office 365 mailboxes and files stored within OneDrive and SharePoint. Office 365 Backup is cloud-based, which makes it easy to deploy and configure. The solution is also easy to manage via a central cloud management console, from which admins can configure full and granular data restorations.
Altaro Office 365 Backup automatically creates copies of emails, attachments, contacts and calendars, as well as files stored within SharePoint and OneDrive, up to four times a day. These are written out to a secure cloud location on Altaro’s Microsoft Azure infrastructure, which allows users to benefit from unlimited storage. Admins can manage and monitor an organization’s backups through a single online console, where they can view current operational activity, restoration history and the organization’s health status. Through the console, organizations can carry out full or granular mailbox restorations, sending recovered content either to the original mailbox, a different mailbox within the organization or to a secure zip file at the user’s discretion. OneDrive and SharePoint backups are restored in largely the same way, with the same options for restoration destination. Users are guided through the restoration by a simple wizard tool, that makes the process quick and easy to carry out.
On top of the features of the solution itself, Altaro offer excellent customer support; their technical team are on call 24/7 and have an average response time of less than 30 seconds. Altaro Office 365 Backup is extremely scalable, so it’s a great solution for small organizations right up through to large enterprises looking for a user-friendly recovery solution for Office 365 mailboxes, as well as SharePoint and OneDrive document libraries.
Carbonite Safe
User-friendly data backup and vendor-managed recovery for SMBs
Carbonite, recently acquired by information management leader OpenText, specialize in data protection from creation, through utilization, until deletion. They protect the data lifespan of over 100,000 small businesses globally. Carbonite Safe is their data backup solution designed to be as unobtrusive to the user as possible. It achieves this through a quick and easy installation process that doesn’t require any technical expertise, and through its automated and vendor-managed backup and restoration processes. Carbonite Safe protects files on physical and Hyper-V servers, desktops, laptops and external storage devices.
Once installed and configured, Carbonite Safe runs automatically in the background to perform incremental backups and secure the data on each device’s hard drive, including email content. Backed up data is encrypted and written out to a secure cloud location, but users also have the option to send it to a secondary external hard drive. Admins can manage backups from a secure web-based dashboard, where they can access backup information and files for all devices from any location. Carbonite manage all recovery operations, which also run in the background. Carbonite Safe’s data recovery isn’t as fast as some other solutions on this list, but users are able to view all files in the cloud, as well as prioritize which files they’d like to recover first, in order to minimize disruption. Finally, the solution includes support from Carbonite’s technical team, a feature which other vendors may typically charge extra for.
Carbonite Safe is targeted towards SMBs. Its simple interface and backup automation make it a great full-service offering for this audience. In addition to this, Carbonite fully manage their solution’s data recovery, which frees up the valuable time of smaller IT teams who might not always have the capacity to do it themselves.
Commvault Backup & Recovery
Highly configurable and scalable data recovery powered by market-leading technology
Commvault are market leaders in data and information management, offering intelligent, scalable solutions. Their powerful, effective products have resulted in Commvault being recognized as Leaders for eight consecutive years in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Backup and Recovery Solutions. Commvault Backup & Recovery is their enterprise data backup solution, designed to protect data for all workloads across both cloud and on-premise environments via a single web-based interface.
Commvault Backup & Recovery automates all of its file retention processes, as well its proactive discovery of newly added datasets. These processes are policy-driven, as are the monitoring and reporting features, which remove the need for lengthy scripts. Data is encrypted and written out to a secure cloud location. Deduplication technology removes duplicate or redundant data copies to improve storage efficiency and increase the amount of data that can be transferred at once.
Some customers find Commvault Backup & Recovery complex to deploy, due to the requirement for several components to be installed and configured, but most are in agreement that the powerful protection provided as a result is worth the effort of setting it up. We recommend Commvault Backup & Recovery as a strong solution for larger enterprises looking to back up a range of file systems, applications, databases and cloud-native SaaS.
Dell Technologies PowerProtect Data Manager
Software defined backup and recovery for physical, virtual and cloud environments, including public, private and hybrid clouds.
Dell Technologies focus on empowering organizations through digital transformation. They offer a range of solutions and products that secure IT infrastructure, individual employee devices and wider industries. PowerProtect Data Manager is Dell Technologies’ main data backup and recovery solution, designed to protect physical, virtual and cloud environments. The solution provides software defined data protection as well as automated discovery and deduplication. It’s available as a stand-alone solution and as a part of Dell’s Data Protection Suite, which also includes Avamar and NetWorker.
PowerProtect Data Manager is software defined, which allows it to protect data across both applications and cloud-native IT environments. Customers have the option to write backups out to the cloud for long-term retention and disaster recovery, as well as to self-manage backup and restore directly from native applications. The management console is also cloud-based. This means that admins can easily access backup information and monitor recoveries for any device from any location. From the console, admins also have complete oversight and governance to ensure compliance. PowerProtect also offers automated deduplication, which takes the strain off system resources. The solution is designed and delivered in a modular, agile way, which means that Dell can deliver updates and new features rapidly to help combat new and emerging threats.
Dell’s PowerProtect Data Manager is built around simplicity, agility and flexibility. Dell has released three new updates for it in the last year, demonstrating investment and dedication to providing security against even the latest threats. Customers praise this solution as being easy to use and manage, despite there not currently being a unified management console to cover both on-premise and public cloud environments. We recommend PowerProtect Data Manager for both SMBs and larger enterprises looking for a powerful, up to date data backup and recovery solution.
Druva Phoenix
Cloud-native SaaS data backup and disaster recovery for Microsoft Office 365
Druva offer data protection across data centers, cloud applications and endpoints via a SaaS platform. Their native cloud architecture allows customers to streamline their security, whilst reducing administrative overhead. Druva Phoenix is their scalable, cloud-native solution that secures data from human error, ransomware attacks, and non-compliance penalties as a result of gaps in data retention policies. It also gives admins critical insights into their Microsoft Office 365 data and projects via their dashboard.
Druva Phoenix detects, investigates and responds to insider threats before any accidental damage can be done. In the case of deletion, the solution restores data to its original location with an automated search and restore feature. The solution also offers protection against ransomware, notifying users of any data risks. It separates data and metadata to simplify cleansing and recovery and make restoration faster. This solution’s backups are all covered by the same consistent retention policy so that admins can easily monitor data compliance. From the dashboard, admins can view data activities chronologically by user, which makes it easier to identify and remediate sensitive data risks at rest.
As well as MS O365 backup, Druva’s Cloud Platform provides disaster recovery and endpoint backup. Each of their solutions is available on-premise and in cloud, and they’re able to cover branch/remote offices as well as an organization’s main office. No matter their location, admins can monitor recovery activity across all protected devices from a single interface.
Because Druva Phoenix is cloud-based, it doesn’t require any infrastructure installation. Admins can manage their data through one interface within 15 minutes of purchasing a subscription. We recommend it as a strong, comprehensive SaaS backup and recovery solution for mid-market and enterprise organizations.
Rubrik Polaris
Flexible, cloud-native security for Microsoft Office 365 apps that scales to meet the organization’s need
Rubrik offer three main backup and recovery products: Rubrik Cloud Data Management (RCDM), their core backup platform; Polaris, their SaaS-based platform; and Mosaic, which offers protection for NoSQL workloads. We’re going to focus on Rubrik Polaris. Polaris provides hybrid cloud enterprises with instant data backup and recovery for their Microsoft O365 applications, leveraging advanced search tools and granular restoration to mitigate data loss.
Polaris’ backups are long-term and scale with the organization’s O365 environment. Users can perform full restorations, but also more granular restorations, such as a OneDrive folder or individual email. The file-level search tool allows users to find specific backups quickly to ensure a smooth recovery from data loss. Polaris also features Radar, which uses machine learning to monitor the Polaris backup environment for any unusual activity, which allows the solution to quickly detect and remediate ransomware threats before they can cause damage. The machine learning element ensures that threat detection is up to date, securing data against new and emerging threats.
Finally, admins have access to full centralized management and reporting tools for all on-premise and cloud devices from a single platform. From here, they can view all backup and recovery activity, as well as automate policy assignments. This is particularly useful for large-scale MS O365 environments.
Rubrik Polaris allows organizations to protect their data within minutes of purchasing a subscription. The solution is fully compatible with Office 365 and Azure and can be connected with those subscriptions via OAuth. All data and metadata is encrypted and remains within the organization’s Azure subscription. Polaris is a strong backup and recovery solution for larger enterprises looking for an effective backup solution that’s easy to deploy and manage.
SolarWinds Backup
Backup and recovery designed specifically for the cloud, with private cloud storage included
SolarWinds are an IT infrastructure MSP. SolarWinds Backup is their cloud-based backup and recovery solution for physical and virtual servers, workstations, critical business documents and Microsoft O365. Compatible with on-premise, cloud and hybrid environments, it secures organizations no matter the state of their cloud transition. The solution offers storage in SolarWinds’ global private cloud for fast and reliable recovery and is managed from one centralized dashboard.
SolarWinds Backup is optimized for fast data transfer between an organization’s systems and their global private cloud over the WAN. Storing backups in their own cloud means that there’s no need for hardware, helping to reduce the strain on system resources. However, organizations also have the option to write backups out to their own hardware if they wish to have a local copy to hand. The SolarWinds Backup provides a multi-tenant hosted dashboard that to allows admins to check backup statuses, schedule backups and recover data across all servers, workstations and business-critical applications from one place. This eliminates the need for multiple backup solutions and makes the whole platform easier to manage. The solution offers multiple options for the recoveries themselves, including bare metal, physical-to-virtual and virtual-to-physical recoveries.
SolarWinds Backup was designed specifically for the cloud and is optimized for efficient data transfer that minimizes strains on bandwidth and system resources. Customers praise this solution for its easy deployment and automation options for scheduling backups that reduce the need for manual configuration. SolarWinds Backup is an ideal solution for MSPs and organizations looking for an effective backup and recovery solution with private cloud storage included, that’s simple to install and manage.
Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365
Gartner Magic Quadrant leading backup and recovery tailored to protect Microsoft Office 365 applications
Veeam are 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 offer a range of solutions to fit business needs, with their Backup & Replication solution being one of their most popular flagship products. However, Veeam also offer 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 offer 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. It’s 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 have recently introduced Backup for Microsoft Office 365 Community Edition, which protects up to 10 users for free with no feature limitations.
Zerto
All-encompassing data protection and IT resilience platform with strong disaster recovery and portable management
Zerto are an IT resilience platform vendor that offer data protection, backup, recovery and workload mobility solutions for on-premise virtual environments and public clouds. Organizations can use Zerto’s IT Resilience Platform to replace multiple legacy solutions, simplifying workload mobility and management across hybrid and multi-clouds.
Zerto’s disaster recovery is founded on continuous data protection (CDP). It uses journal-based technology to log all changes that are made during a specific period, so that the user can recover data from any point-in-time, right down to the second. This minimizes data loss to just seconds before it can be restored. Restoration options span from full recoveries to granular data points, and with the help of CDP the user can recover data from a point seconds before the loss occurred. This is extremely effective in protecting organizations from data loss due to ransomware attacks. The solution also offers storage flexibility; users can choose whether they want to write out their backups to their own data center or a public, private or hybrid cloud.
The solution is also easy to set up and configure with the help of the Zerto Replication wizard, and admins can manage all recovery information and analytics through the Zerto Virtual Manager interface. The solution’s flexibility extends to the way its managed – admins are able to configure similar rules for different services, which is particularly useful for configuring backups for different Office 365 applications.
Zerto’s solution is highly scalable and flexible in terms of management. Their mobile app means that admins can check backup information on the go without having to connect through a VPN, just by entering their MyZerto credentials. This is ideal for admins who may be away from the office for some time, or organizations with multiple offices. We recommend Zerto’s solution for larger enterprises looking for an all-in-one data protection and disaster recovery solution.