Office 365 - backup and security products??

[Andycat]

Hi all,

 

Having at least one phone call a day from companies telling me I need to backup my Office 365, and get security products for it. Barracuda essentials etc.....

 

Is this really necessary? Is anyone else in a school doing this? Selling points seem to be anti phishing, email retention policies, GDPR etc...... but I think we can configure 365 to do these things with a bit of digging (and do), but there's always a nagging doubt when so many people start to try and flog something!

[TwistedHelixis]

We went with Spanning Backup for our Google stuff but they do a MS version. Its one of those things that you don't really need, until you need it.

 

In our case Google offer unlimited retention etc but then you read those odd cases on a forum where x y z occurred and a third party backup would have saved the day.

[andyk1975]

Andy - yes similar to me. I have just spoken with Barracuda and had a webinar outlining thier product Barracuda Essentials for Office 365 - incorporating security features, backup, etc. The product does look very good and adds to the protection in school, but like yourself, I had similar feelings regards whether it was actaully something we REALLY need.....I am going to wait for the pricing - as always! - and then take it from there.

 

Barracuda explained that Microsoft themselves reccommend to its customers that additional security is needed for Office 365, and Microsoft do not back up emails.

 

Like the comment above, its one of those things that you perhaps you dont need, until you do!

[Andycat]

Andy - yes similar to me. I have just spoken with Barracuda and had a webinar outlining thier product Barracuda Essentials for Office 365 - incorporating security features, backup, etc. The product does look very good and adds to the protection in school, but like yourself, I had similar feelings regards whether it was actaully something we REALLY need.....I am going to wait for the pricing - as always! - and then take it from there.

 

Barracuda explained that Microsoft themselves reccommend to its customers that additional security is needed for Office 365, and Microsoft do not back up emails.

 

Like the comment above, its one of those things that you perhaps you dont need, until you do!

 

I'd be interested to see their response if you could pm me at the time?

[SEdwards]

We're having similar conversations with Barracuda at the moment, and I've just had pricing back. It'll cost us £3.91 per user for email security and £4.39 per user for 365 backups which is A LOT of money for us (And that's heavily discounted apparently)... so we're looking at alternatives. I think the main issue we have is that the email encryption offered by Office 365 requires too many steps to open an email, which will without question frustrate parents as it's frustrating everyone else that's been testing it... whereas Barracuda's encryption is actually done very very well... it's just a shame they're not priced for education.