Advice on Cloud Backup / Storage MS Azure?

[speckytecky]

We are running O365 in our small school and I've been asked to explore Cloud solutions for backup. Is there any guidance that I could be pointed toward on this please?

 

I have a vague feeling that Azure is somehow linked to O365 and that might be the best option?

[robyholmes]

Think of Azure as the server, with Office365 as the software on top. Its just a cloud based service running from Azure. From your point of view you use Azure AD which sits behind Office365 and holds all your users, groups etc.

 

I'm currently using Azure for offsite backups using the 'Azure Backup' service. Its working pretty well althought the costs do add up as your pay as you go, so if you store (like us) things for years it adds to the cost. However it also means you can directly affect the price by reducing the amount you store rather than paying for 1TB of backup for x amount of years.

 

First thing you can do is sign up to a Azure Trail (Even though you already have it). It gives you £125 for 30 days and means you can setup and test the backup before it costs you anything. Also a nice feature is you get Azure Backup Server which is a slightly cut down version of DPM. It means you can backup to disk onsite and pick what gets backed up to Azure. Handy for things like Apps & Drivers you might want to backup locally but not store offsite. Onsite backups are limited to 30 days, but thats enough for most none data backups.

Edited June 28, 2016 by robyholmes

[speckytecky]

Superbly useful reply thanks @robyholmes

 

Think of Azure as the server, with Office365 as the software on top. Its just a cloud based service running from Azure. From your point of view you use Azure AD which sits behind Office365 and holds all your users, groups etc.

 

I'm currently using Azure for offsite backups using the 'Azure Backup' service. Its working pretty well althought the costs do add up as your pay as you go, so if you store (like us) things for years it adds to the cost. However it also means you can directly affect the price by reducing the amount you store rather than paying for 1TB of backup for x amount of years.

 

First thing you can do is sign up to a Azure Trail (Even though you already have it). It gives you £125 for 30 days and means you can setup and test the backup before it costs you anything. Also a nice feature is you get Azure Backup Server which is a slightly cut down version of DPM. It means you can backup to disk onsite and pick what gets backed up to Azure. Handy for things like Apps & Drivers you might want to backup locally but not store offsite. Onsite backups are limited to 30 days, but thats enough for most none data backups.