We’re about to roll out 365 to all our users. Exchange Online mailboxes, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint.
What solutions for backing up and restoring the data are you experienced with, and would recommend?
We currently use Veeam for VM backup, but their solution is a totally different product, not integrated with VBR. So since a separate product would have to be licensed and installed, we aren’t necessarily locked in to using Veeam for that too.
Thanks in advance.
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Need a bit more info. As far as user data, OneDrive just handles it. You can even recover deleted files and access file history.
What exactly is needing backed up? Are you only concerned about the data, or do you want to have image level backups for every user so you save applications and other configurations as well?
Looking to perform daily backups of all users OneDrive files, SharePoint data, Teams (teams, channels, files, tabs), Exchange Online mailboxes.
This would be for long-term retention. 5+ years. Thinking of using object storage like Wasabi as a destination.
Hosted MSP360 is set and forget. Wasabi is great but for archive iDrive s3 is noticably cheaper.
If you want data sovereignty a Synology NAS running Active Backup for M365 is really good for a free/included app.
The whole point of a cloud platform is that user data is in the cloud, what you’re going for here is redundant
What I’m trying to achieve is backup and archival of data for long term retention and recovery.
There are certain legal obligations that as an organization we need to fulfill. Being able to recover emails and data from up to 5 years ago. If a user leaves or deletes an email or a file that we suddenly need to reference years down the road, that is not possible with the retention tools MS gives us.
So I’m looking for a solution that allows me to backup this data daily and store it for 5 to 7 years for future reference and recovery if needed.
We just recently purchased Mail Assure with Cove Data Protection from N-able to achieve a similar goal, but unfortunately I don’t have any experience with it yet to advise if it is any good. It is an option though.
We also make use of cove. I’m relatively new to it.
I’m a bit confused by the part: “but their solution is a totally different product”. Doesn’t Veeam have just an additional SKU to add in the 365 connector?
It’s actually a completely separate product from Veeam Backup & Replication. Not a connector or add-on to VBR. Would be nice if it was.
Main thing to consider is where you’re storing the backups. Are you wanting to store the locally or in another cloud service? The other consideration, of course, is cost.
The most CapEx friendly solution is to buy a Synology with a ton of drives. Their built in software can backup 365 and Google without any additional cost or license. Your only limitations here are bandwidth, storage space, and the fact the data is local. A cheap place you could store this data back in another cloud would be Wasabi, which the Synology can also connect to.
Veeam can back to up to local or cloud based repos, Wasabi included, but you have to pay a per user license, which can add up.
A Cloud to Cloud backup solution I’ve worked with is SysCloud. Easy to use interface, especially for plucking out files and folders for recovery. You can pay per user or buy bulk storage. I’ve only used it for Google Suite for Drive/classrooms/and other non-mail stuff, but I know it can do 365 content as well.
Finally, for strictly email (and not OneDrive/SharePoint, etc), one option is Mimecast. They are a great email security gateway that you can route your email through ahead of 365, and I think for security alone are a good investment if you can afford it. In addition to it handling security functions, you can also buy the archival service for capturing everything that goes through before users interact with them. Being able to near instantly search our entire email archive is super handy when doing legal/hr searches. It ain’t cheap though.
Another cloud to cloud I know but don’t use for 365 is Druva. We used them for endpoint backup and are quite happy with them in that regard, but I do know they do 365 as well, don’t know much about how that is licensed though.
Definitely compare some other products but those should be a good list to start with.
However, I do think the Synology is probably slightly more unique in its space. The software that comes their NAS are really powerful, does all kinds of things without cost beyond buying the hardware it self.
My company uses Acronis M365 Backup Protection.
I believe it was selected because the licensing options and costs were much better than Veeam’s offering.
To be honest I can’t comment much further - it was set up by a colleague, it runs in a different country, and I’ve never needed to do a restore from it because I’ve always been able to recover lost files/emails from the recycle bin/recoverable items.
It’s more of an insurance policy against ransomware or other malware than anything else. It’s good to have, but not used day to day.
Although that does remind me that we are probably due a test restore. I’ll add that to the list for this month. Thanks! 😉
The company I work for does IT for a bunch of small to medium sized companies. We are in the process right now of converting one over to 365. If you are talking about backing up their systems, we use a combination of OneDrive and Synology.
If you are talking about backing up their full on 365 in the cloud, I didn’t even know that was a thing. I would like to know more.
USB flash drives
