How do you backup Microsoft 365? This is frequent question. Some organisations choose to use a cloud connector for their existing on-premises backup solution, others choose a cloud native solution, and many don’t have a backup solution, instead relying on a combination of retention policies and Microsoft support requests.

The right backup solution depends on the requirements for recovery. What are the recovery point and recovery time objectives? How much data is there? What types of data and services are being protecting?

Up until now, the only choice of backup for Microsoft 365 has been third-party backup solutions. Microsoft 365 Backup is part of the SharePoint Premium features (formerly Syntex) and adds basic backup and recovery features to Microsoft 365.

Microsoft 365 Backup keeps data in the M365 tenant but geographically separated from the data it backs up, but within the security boundaries of your tenant. This has some advantages compared to other backup solutions:

• Self-service.
• Data remains secure in your tenant.
• Data residency is maintained.
• Very fast recovery time.

Microsoft 365 Backup supports Exchange Online, SharePoint, and OneDrive. It doesn’t have Teams or M365 Group backup and recovery specifically. There are other recovery points e.g. Deleted M365 Groups can be recovery within 30 days of Delete via the Admin Portal.

Backup Policies define the frequency and retention duration for backups along with the sites to include. Pattern matched URL’s are supported, so sites created with a consistent naming convention can be automatically added e.g. a new project site or Team site that matches the naming convention.

I think it is also important to consider who will be responsible for restoring from backup. In the heat of the moment, it is important that the person or team responsible understand the recovery options and are familiar with the tools. You don’t want to be learning something new at a critical moment!

Recovery in SharePoint is at the site level. The selected site(s) are restore to the point in time selected. This includes permissions and content. You cannot restore an individual document, however you can restore to a new site and manually move documents if required.

Now is a good time to look at your Microsoft 365 backup and recovery processes. Do you have the tools you need to meet your organisations requirements? Do you know how to recovery something if you need to?

Pricing is based on storage required for the backups (per user licensing is common in other cloud backup solutions). See the pricing calculator page. Look at the average mailbox and OneDrive sizes across you tenant. In my experience, most tenants have a small number users with a lot of content and many with small amounts. The calculator helps you understand the costs compared and workout a per user cost.

A few people sent have asked me about costs. The current data pricing can make backups every expensive if you look at an individual user, especially if they have a big mailbox or OneDrive. I have run scenarios for a number of my clients, and while some are very expense, others are cheaper than typical per user based backup solutions.

Third-party backup solutions will also be able to leverage the capabilities of Microsoft 365 Backup. If you want more than basic backup and restore features, such as file level recovery you will need to look to third-parties.

Microsoft 365 Backup is currently in preview, rolling out early 2024.