Poll: Office 365 backups

[BJG]

I'd be interested to know whether people generally rely on Microsoft's own backup, or add a third-party solution.

[localzuk]

We bought into a third party solution - Barracuda Office 365 Backup. Easy to set up and it works well.

[robyholmes]

We use Rentention policies as our primary method of protecting data in Office 365.

 

However we also use a Synology NAS to backup all of Office 365 locally which only runs once a week. The rest of the week its turned off so its an offline backup.

[FN-GM]

We bought into a third party solution - Barracuda Office 365 Backup. Easy to set up and it works well.

 

Same here! Works well!

[ozydave]

Barracuda here as well.

[MYK-IT]

We use Barracuda Office 365 Cloud to Cloud Backup too.

 

Just received our renewal quotation and it has increased by 62% compared to last year!!! - Reseller advised that there has been 2 price increases during the past 12 months. They have come back with a revised quotation, but still an increase of 44% - electrical prices are probably to blame. Still cheap when you take into account that all accounts (staff and students) and their entire Office365 data is protected, with unlimited backup capacity /retention period.

 

Office 365 Shared Responsibility Model

You shouldn't be relying on Microsoft to safeguard your data (even by just using retention policies)

https://www.barracuda.com/products/email-protection/cloud-to-cloud-backup

https://www.veeam.com/blog/office365-shared-responsibility-model.html

https://www.ryadel.com/en/office-365-backup-need-it-requirements/

Edited August 18, 2022 by MYK-IT

[TechMonkey]

We use Barracuda Office 365 Cloud to Cloud Backup too.

 

Just received our renewal quotation and it has increased by 62% compared to last year!!! - Reseller advised that there has been 2 price increases during the past 12 months. They have come back with a revised quotation, but still an increase of 44% - electrical prices are probably to blame. Still cheap when you take into account that all accounts (staff and students) and their entire Office365 data is protected, with unlimited backup capacity /retention period.

 

Office 365 Shared Responsibility Model

You shouldn't be relying on Microsoft to safeguard your data (even by just using retention policies)

https://www.barracuda.com/products/email-protection/cloud-to-cloud-backup

https://www.veeam.com/blog/office365-shared-responsibility-model.html

https://www.ryadel.com/en/office-365-backup-need-it-requirements/

 

Interesting that all of those are links to suppliers of backup solutions. & Yes I know that they all relate to the MS document setting out responsibilities, but my take on it is that this is MS throwing a bone to backup providers and CYA themselves. Are Microsoft really saying "Hey, get a backup solution because we can't be trusted with your data?" and on the flip side they aren't going to claim total protection as every company will be at them if any data gets lost. So, as ever, it is about risk assessment and risk management.

 

Also how many using O365 backup are considering GDPR and retention policies? If you are backing up the data, are you being selective and considering what needs to be backed up or just backing up everything? Do your retention policies apply to your backups also?

 

I'm not saying O365 backup is bad, but it is interesting the scaremongering that went around when MS published the shared responsibility and the push to get schools to do it, even more interesting that prices are now sky rocketing.

[Mr.Ben]

We use Barracuda Office 365 Cloud to Cloud Backup too.

 

Just received our renewal quotation and it has increased by 62% compared to last year!!! - Reseller advised that there has been 2 price increases during the past 12 months. They have come back with a revised quotation, but still an increase of 44% - electrical prices are probably to blame. Still cheap when you take into account that all accounts (staff and students) and their entire Office365 data is protected, with unlimited backup capacity /retention period.

 

 

We use Barracuda as well. Happy I signed up for 5 years last year at fixed pricing!

[Aprice]

Synology generally is our recommendation for 365. Smaller primary customers our cloud option makes more sense for as the monthly costs are low anyway.

[MYK-IT]

We use Barracuda as well. Happy I signed up for 5 years last year at fixed pricing!

 

@Mr.Ben

 

In relation to your 5-year agreement, did you have to pay all up-front? Or are you paying annually?

 

Only ask, as our current supplier also supplied a 3-year quotation, but was based on paying all upfront; which we certainly cannot afford.

 

May be worth me seeking quotations from other suppliers? Although not sure how Barracuda work in relation to their resellers etc.

 

Thanks,

[DrCheese]

Annually for us - There's no way I would have got the full 3 years through in one go.

[Mr.Ben]

All up front - as a large Trust we can shift the expenditure into future years to balance budgets.

 

If you are in a Trust with a surplus (we run at 5% across 35 schools) we can effectively borrow from this and account/repay over the term.

 

We do this where schools have issues with finance individually to ensure the replacment of equipment.

Edited August 19, 2022 by Mr.Ben

[chaplic]

I reckon this practise is unique to education. I do most of my work with large companies and none of them have ever backed up O365 to a third party solution. Given there is per-use charging that’s being brought in for Teams exports I can see this being a direction of travel for Microsoft.

[FN-GM]

I reckon this practise is unique to education. I do most of my work with large companies and none of them have ever backed up O365 to a third party solution. Given there is per-use charging that’s being brought in for Teams exports I can see this being a direction of travel for Microsoft.

 

I don’t work in education and we backup Office 365.

[browolf]

barracuda but I'm not convinced we'll ever need to use it.