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Microsoft 365 is a popular choice for large and mid-sized enterprises, offering robust cloud solutions for data management, operational efficiency, collaboration, and communication. However, despite its impressive suite of applications, data loss risks exist. Therefore, businesses require a reliable Office 365 backup and recovery solution to safeguard their vital information.
Despite Microsoft’s provision of advanced security features, it lacks a comprehensive native backup solution for Microsoft 365. This gap often leads to confusion among organizations and employees who assume their data is fully protected. Typically, the pre-configured settings offer data protection for only 30-90 days on average. Therefore, having a backup solution in place is essential to ensure data security at all times. Additionally, Microsoft 365 encompasses various types, including Primary mailboxes, archive, shared, and public folders, each serving distinct purposes.
Key Points to Note before Choosing the Best Office 365 Backup Solution:
In this blog, we will compare the top Microsoft 365 cloud backup solutions in the market to simplify your selection process.
Critical attributes of a vital cloud backup solution include performance, reliability, and straightforward deployment. An effective cloud backup solution should offer data backup and restoration speeds of up to 4.5 Mbps. Kernel Office 365 Backup & Restore has earned a remarkable rating of 4.9 out of 5, establishing itself as one of the most influential and valuable Microsoft 365 backup solutions for enterprises. Additionally, there are several other noteworthy Office 365 tools worth mentioning.
Let’s have a thorough look at the best Microsoft 365 backup solutions that you can use to secure your business-critical information.
Regarded as one of the top Office 365 backup & restore utilities available, it boasts an advanced feature set for seamlessly backing up single or multiple Office 365 accounts, as well as on-premises or hosted Exchange Servers, to the Outlook PST format. Below, we delve into the detailed software features:
- Backup single/multiple Microsoft 365 mailboxes to Outlook PST file
- Offers smooth migration of Office 365 items to new PST files in the most secure manner
- Exports shared, archive mailboxes and public folders to PST file with metadata and permissions
- Uses administer account to automate the backup of Office 365 mailboxes
- Allows you to skip empty/deleted folders from the backup process
- Skips the duplicate items from your mailboxes while preserving the read/unread status of emails
- Designed with modern authentication algorithms to provide a secure login process and secure your account from any risks
It also provides a trial version that allows you to backup 10 items per folder.
Altaro is rapidly emerging as a market leader in backup and recovery solutions tailored for organizations. Their Microsoft 365 backup and restoration solution center on safeguarding Office 365 mailboxes and files residing within OneDrive and SharePoint. This cloud-based solution ensures straightforward deployment and configuration for individuals.
- Easy to use and manage with a central cloud management console for configuration and data backup
- Creates automatic copies of emails, attachments, contacts, and calendars, including the files stored on your OneDrive and SharePoint
- View the current operational activities, restoration history, and organization’s health status
- Send your recovered mailboxes to the original mailbox, a different mailbox, or a secure zip file at the user’s location
- Get guidance throughout the backup process with a simple integrated wizard that makes it easy to carry out
Altaro offers continuous customer support to all its customers to help them resolve any issues faced while using the tool. However, the tool subscription is expensive for SMEs.
Veeam has maintained its position as a leader in the cloud backup solution market for an extended period. It offers the Microsoft 365 backup solution in the form of traditional on-premise software. Moreover, it provides the flexibility to store your data backups either in their cloud storage or on your on-premises infrastructure.
- Offers an intuitive UI and a wide range of sources for data backup
- Enables great control over the backup process to help you select specific data for the backup
- Minimize the complexity to maintain and manage server and storage infrastructure
- Offers up to 25 recovery options to cover all incidents, including complete recovery to more granular file-level recovery
- Provides various retention options for the users, including traditional item-level storage, snapshot-based incremental storage
It is ideal for large enterprises, as it is more comprehensive and costly. However, a new solution has also been launched for small enterprises to back up their data.
Acronis offers comprehensive disaster recovery and secure data backup solutions designed to safeguard businesses’ Office 365 data. Acronis has gained recognition for its rapid recovery capabilities, thanks to its advanced VM technology, ensuring near-instantaneous recovery with minimal disruptions.
- A normal yet effective backup solution that provides an automated process to help you secure your data
- Prevents unauthorized file modification and encryption for proactive ransomware protection powered by AI technology
- Authenticates the legitimacy of backup copies before restoration for complete security and protection
- Provides a web-based console to access information regardless of the location
- Easy to position and achieve across both Windows and Linux Servers that makes it ideal for every user
- The product can be installed and used in more than 25 languages, making it ideal for all SMEs and global enterprises
Acronis is quite an impressive cloud backup utility that offers a simple process to back up your Office 365 data. But, the tool is not much useful for every enterprise as the features are limited.
Commvault has established itself as a market leader in data and information management, offering intelligent and scalable solutions. Its consistent effectiveness and reliability have earned Commvault a top position in the Gartner Magic Quadrant report for eight years. The tool boasts comprehensive features that prove invaluable in various scenarios.
- An enterprise data backup solution that can protect data of both cloud and on-premise environments with a single web-based interface
- Allows you to automate the file retention processes with a proactive discovery of newly added datasets
- Removes the need of creating lengthy scripts as the processes are policy-driven with monitoring and reporting features
- Removes the duplicate and repetitive data copies to improve storage efficiency and the amount of data to be transferred
- Easy to install and organize on any system with minimum specifications and software requirements
The tool is ideal for large enterprises that need to backup and restore a large amount of data in their company. For SMEs, it is not much helpful as the costs are a little higher.
Backupify is a relatively newcomer in the cloud backup solution market, but its offering is tailored for small and mid-sized businesses. Originally launched with a consumer-focused model, Backupify has since evolved into an enterprise-oriented solution, consistently adding updates and functionality. It stands out by providing a range of robust data backup features at an affordable price point.
- A unique backup platform that provides a simple and interactive user interface for beginners as well as technical users
- Covers backup for all Microsoft 365 platforms, including Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams data
- Automates the backup process that runs three times a day to back up a large amount of data
- Detect new user mailboxes automatically, along with the automatic archiving of data from departing employees
- Allows you to backup specific data as per your requirements with advanced filters
Backupify is a great alternative to many costly and highly influential cloud backup tools that are not affordable for SMEs.
Rubrik Polaris is an outstanding backup tool that ensures the security, accessibility, and discoverability of your critical Microsoft 365 data. It provides a straightforward and efficient method for backing up and safeguarding your Microsoft 365 data, employing intelligent algorithms. Rubrik Polaris supports the backup of all your Office 365 data, encompassing OneDrive, Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams.
- A simple and effective utility designed to help you secure and protect your Office 365 data at any cost
- Safeguards from data loss and facilitates streamlined management for your Microsoft 365 applications
- Allows you to recover accidentally deleted data items with point-in-time recovery, granular restores, and near-zero RTOs
- Unify the management process of Microsoft 365, Datacenters, and Cloud Apps with a single utility
- Search and restore specific emails, tasks, journals, and attachments with instant search functionality
Rubrik Polaris gives access to full centralized management and reporting tools to all admins from a single platform. It is fully compatible with Office 365 and Azure platforms with smooth connectivity via OAuth.
The above tools are compared based on various reviews, forums, and cloud backup capabilities to help you choose the best Microsoft 365 backup solution.
Wrap Up
Enterprises may face data loss in Microsoft 365 due to various factors, including external threats and accidental deletion. To mitigate reputational and financial risks, safeguard your data with continuous backup and restoration. This blog presents the top Microsoft 365 backup and restore solutions, ensuring the security and preservation of your organization’s critical information.