Microsoft Office 365 data protection is critical for any organization using Microsoft solutions to enable and improve team collaboration. Microsoft products integrated in workflows can facilitate and accelerate communications between employees or entire departments, enable fast data exchange (documents, photos, guides and other files) and add significant convenience to routine tasks.
Taking into account the overall volumes and importance of data that organizations operate and store inside Microsoft services, IT security specialists naturally want to get a reliable Office 365 data loss prevention solution. In this review, we look at NAKIVO Backup & Replication, a modern data protection solution that you can use to create and safely store Office 365 backup data.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication: General Overview
Microsoft 365 is a cloud-oriented suite that is permanently online. This means that there is a wide variety of threats to data and infrastructures, from primitive random phishing to sophisticated multi-level cyberattacks aiming to inject ransomware. This reality necessitates a reliable Microsoft 365 data backup solution that allows you to safeguard the data circulating within your organization’s Microsoft SaaS space.
Microsoft offers a set of default tools such as versioning and retention settings that you may treat as backup instruments. These tools can help you reduce the negative impact of human errors to some extent, but a file version or a data copy stored inside Microsoft 365 storage is not a backup. Considering versions and retention copies as backups is dangerous since it can lead to critical data loss, cause severe financial and reputational damage or even threaten your organization’s existence.
A backup is a copy of the original data and is independent of the production environment. Simply put, a backup remains accessible and usable for recovery in case you can’t continue using the original data for whatever reason, from a bad OS update to a physical disk failure. In the context of Microsoft 365 data retention, a backup is a data copy residing off Microsoft’s data storages. Relevance, availability and recoverability of such copies ensures that you keep control of your Microsoft 365 data when something goes wrong with Microsoft software, hardware, network connection, among other possible things.
The Microsoft 365 data backup solution from NAKIVO enables you to keep SaaS data backups on premises. The backup process can be automated, thus ensuring data availability according to your organization’s recovery objectives. The NAKIVO Microsoft 365 backup functionality is not limited to the protection of emails and accounts. Using this solution, you also can protect your data in:
- OneDrive for Business
- Exchange Online
- Sharepoint Online
- Microsoft Teams
With just a dual-core central processing unit and 4 GB of RAM required for the solution to function, NAKIVO Backup & Replication is optimized to consume hardware resources efficiently. You can install the solution on Windows and Linux machines or on NAS devices. A single deployment of the solution enables data protection for thousands of Microsoft 365 users. The installation process is easy, and the configuration is designed to be intuitive: starting the first backup workflow is possible within the first 2 minutes after installation.
NAKIVO Office 365 Backup Solution: Key Features
With NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 you can create and maintain Microsoft Office 365 backup data stored in a safe on-premise location. The convenience and efficiency of the solution, along with all the features listed below, makes it one of the best Microsoft 365 backup solutions on the market.
Fast Incremental Backups
With NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365, an initial full backup is created once. After that, the solution transfers and rewrites only the data blocks that had changed since the last backup. By doing so, backups complete quicker and consume storage space more efficiently since much less data is transferred and modified during the incremental backup workflow. Furthermore, for Teams and Exchange Online backups, NAKIVO’s solution can additionally cut backup windows and sizes using Microsoft’s delta query.
Flexible Granular Recovery
The NAKIVO solution enables you to recover the exact object from the backup without restoring the entire backup copy. Recovered files can be sent to the original Microsoft 365 account or you can choose a custom destination.
Backup Management and Scheduling
You can set up schedules for automated backups according to your organization’s Microsoft 365 data retention policy, and perform management tasks from the solution’s web-based interface. Access the solution from any location worldwide, create new workflows and modify existing ones. You can also have a convenient overview of the entire set of your backups via the Calendar dashboard. With all past, running and planned activities displayed, you can avoid resource overlaps and react quickly if that happens.
Advanced Search CapabilitiesÂ
The built-in search tool enables you to find the items in backups within the shortest time. After locating the item, you can run a recovery workflow and restore the data near-instantly. The search feature can especially help when you need to respond to data compliance calls or to e-discovery requests.
Microsoft 365 Data Backup Solution: Security and Management Features
In addition to the features described above, NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 has more safety and management capabilities worth noting in this review. With all the functions and features combined, the solution can suit small or medium organizations and large enterprises equally well.
Enhanced Backup SecurityÂ
Using the role-based access control (RBAC) feature enables you to configure access to backup repositories. Employees can have previously set roles that grant them only the access rights that they need to effectively perform their job responsibilities, thus implementing the principle of least privilege.
Enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) is another way to create an additional layer of protection. With 2FA enabled, an admin needs to provide the Google Authenticator code in addition to the regular login credentials that users have. The combined use of 2FA and RBAC can help you prevent third-party access to Office 365 backup data in case of security breach attempts.
Data Protection Delegation
In case your organization is large, you might find the data protection delegation feature in NAKIVO’s solution useful. Use a multi-tenant installation to create isolated environments (tenants) and then delegate backup and recovery management to specific emplot=yees. You don’t need to deploy additional software copies to run a multi-tenant environment.
The data protection delegation functionality can help you streamline data protection management and delegate resources to different users with ease. You can perform this without losing centralized control, as the entire backup and recovery system remains visible and accessible to you whenever necessary.
Customizable Data Retention
NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 can retain up to 4,000 recovery points per backup, enabling you to configure daily, weekly or yearly rotation. Therefore, you can store the data within the periods specified in your organization’s Office 365 data retention policy while keeping the storage space consumption under control. If necessary, you can set the solution to automatically delete particular data after the specified storage period expires, thus ensuring regulatory compliance.
Affordable Microsoft 365 Backup Pricing
The per-user subscription model that NAKIVO offers is another reason that boosts the solution’s versatility. You can order the required number of subscriptions (with the minimum of 10 protected Microsoft 365 accounts), and then purchase more licenses as the need arises. The price when buying a 3-year subscription is only $0.80 per user, which makes the offer from NAKIVO one of the most cost-efficient solutions on the market.
Conclusion
A reliable way to prevent Microsoft 365 data loss in emergency cases such as a successful cyberattack or hard disk failure is to have a secure data backup. That backup should be independent from Microsoft’s SaaS infrastructures and remain accessible even when Microsoft services are unavailable.
With NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 you can:
- Back up Office 365 documents and folders
- Back up SharePoint Online
- Back up OneDrive for Business
- Back up Exchange Online
- Send SaaS backups to Windows, Linux or NAS repositories
- Find and recover the required items to original or custom location in minutes
- Control access to the solution and backups to strengthen backup data security
With the NAKIVO solution, you can use a single convenient dashboard to configure and manage backup workflows and set retention policies. You can run backups on demand or by schedule to always have relevant data copies ready for recovery. With the multi-tenant installation option, you can offload duties by delegating data protection management responsibilities to chosen employees within your organization. All the features and functions put together with flexible per-user licensing turn NAKIVO Backup & Replication into a favorable solution for both SMBs and enterprises.
