Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 has now been on the market for over half a decade and protects over 14 million Microsoft 365 users. Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) recently wrote a technical review about Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365. The review, downloadable here, focused on the results of a detailed evaluation of the solution. This evaluation analyzed several key aspects, including validating the backup capabilities and recovery options Veeam has available. In this blog, I will summarize ESG’s findings within the technical review.
The Microsoft 365 Backup Market
ESG prefaced their review by first observing the approach organizations are taking when it comes to protecting SaaS-resident application data. Their view is that a SaaS backup disconnect persists. Despite the fact organizations transfer much of the responsibility (operating system, hosts, network etc.) to the SaaS provider, it is still the responsibility of the organization to protect the data within the application. Unfortunately, they found that only 22% of organizations believed that protecting SaaS data was their responsibility.
The Microsoft 365 Backup Solution Overview
ESG describes Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 as a solution designed to protect Microsoft 365 data from common data loss threats such as accidental deletion and security concerns. They waste no time highlighting one of Veeam’s major strengths — storage freedom, which allows organizations to backup either on-premises or in a variety of cloud object storage options, including Amazon S3, Azure Blob and S3-compatible providers.
ESG developed a diagram to show the different applications which can be protected, as well as the variety of storage options available for both primary backups as well as when creating backup copies.
Granular Microsoft 365 Management Capabilities
It’s clear that ESG has identified granular management capabilities as a key aspect of Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365. They mention not only the ease with which individual elements can be selected for backup, but also mention the flexibility Veeam allows for scheduling the specific time and frequency in which backup jobs should run. ESG states that the granular management capabilities give admins the ability to match their Microsoft 365 protection to their business recovery requirements.
Agile Microsoft 365 Data Recovery
ESG focuses more than half of the entire technical review on all the recovery capabilities available in Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365. ESG goes into great detail on how Veeam addresses recovery within each application it supports, these include individual sections on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Teams. They end each section with “why this matters”, with the goal of helping organizations understand the importance of recovery relative to each application.
ESG shows how easy it is to recover Microsoft 365 data, and they detail the simplicity of the recovery processes with screenshots of the Veeam Explorer UI. ESG covers every recovery option available within the solution, including restoring back to the original location or to a new location, self-service options and save, send and export options.
ESG states that while backup is important, recovery is what makes all the difference, and this is what makes Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 stand out as a solution worth evaluating.
If you’ve read this far, it’s probably worth reading the entire technical review from ESG. You can read it here.
Additional resources:
- Veeam special report: 7 Critical Reasons for Microsoft 365 Backup
- 30-days FREE: Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365
- Community Edition: Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 Community Edition
