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Microsoft 365 Backup now GA with API for SaaS recovery
New offerings from Microsoft provide a cloud backup and recovery service for its popular Microsoft 365 with an API enabling other backup platforms to add the service.
Microsoft 365 customers can now purchase backup and archiving services for SaaS applications directly managed by Microsoft.
Microsoft 365 Backup, which became generally available July 31, enables customers to create backups for common Microsoft 365 application data, such as Exchange or SharePoint, without having to use another console or third-party service.
Microsoft 365 Archive is also generally available after launching in preview last July.
Microsoft's productivity SaaS applications are used by more than 300 million, which makes backups critical, according to Scott Sinclair, an analyst at TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group.
"So much of corporate operations rely on [Outlook] email and SharePoint," Sinclair said. "That is our data repository."
Service features
Microsoft 365 Backup enables immutable backup and restoration of OneDrive, SharePoint and Exchange Online data.
Data created by the Microsoft 365 Backup service remains within Microsoft 365 and is stored according to the user's preferences.
Recovery points are available every 10 minutes for the previous two weeks for OneDrive and SharePoint data, with weekly snapshots available for the prior year. Exchange Online data is backed up and available in 10-minute increments for the prior year.
The level of granularity for OneDrive and SharePoint stops at the account level, with specific file restoration coming soon, while Exchange Online includes individual items such as mail, tasks or contacts.
The service is priced at $0.15 per gigabyte per month for each of the three supported data types.
Third-party data backup vendors can use Microsoft 365 Backup Storage, a new platform for backup and restorations at scale, to enable the service within their own backup platforms.
Initial third-party vendors that will support Microsoft 365 Backup include AvePoint, Cohesity, Commvault, Rubrik, Veeam and Veritas.
Microsoft 365 Archive provides storage for inactive SharePoint sites by storing data within a cold storage tier in SharePoint, enabling the use of SharePoint's data management and search tools over standard archiving. Data stored in Microsoft 365 Archive can be reviewed using Microsoft 365 Search index and Microsoft Purview, the vendor's governance service. The service is priced using a pay-as-you-go model based on total SharePoint storage used.
'Inevitable' backup needs
Many SaaS vendors utilize the shared-responsibility model, where users are responsible for maintenance and protection of SaaS data while vendors are responsible for service uptime, said Mike Matchett, founder and analyst at Small World Big Data.
The ubiquity of Microsoft 365 applications has made backup and restoration needs common, he said, which likely caused Microsoft to see the gap in the market for easily available, basic protection.
"We all have to do that, [so] why wouldn't you do that," Matchett said. "It's inevitable."
Using a first-party backup service with an API will more likely ensure customers can recover data as it was, rather than needing to reconfigure user settings or databases if attempting to recover from straight backups, he said.
Some third-party data backup vendors have added automated recovery for SaaS products that lack APIs or for customers who might not be interested in developing their own recovery processes, such as HYCU and its backup platform, he said.
Regardless of what Microsoft offers, many enterprises likely already have a third-party backup vendor and associated recovery service in place, said Krista Macomber-Case, an analyst at Futurum Group.
Making SaaS APIs available to third-party developers can make restorations smoother, eliminating the need to jump into other programs or cloud consoles while ensuring that billing is kept with a single provider, she said.
"Any IT professional that's well-versed in data protection is already going to be working with those third-party vendors and what they provide," Macomber-Case said.
Tim McCarthy is a news writer for TechTarget Editorial, covering cloud and data storage.
