This week at Microsoft Inspire, Microsoft announced two new cloud backup solutions: Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Archive.
According to Microsoft, more than 2 billion documents and emails are added to Microsoft 365 every day. These products help administrators and organizations ensure data protection “throughout the entire life cycle”.
Microsoft 365 Backup
Microsoft 365 Backup backs up OneDrive, SharePoint, and Exchange data at “outstanding speed” while keeping it “within the Microsoft 365 secure area.”
Microsoft emphasizes that administrators can configure the new feature to back up all or selected SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts, and Exchange mailboxes. The solution supports restoring files, sites, and mail items to a previous state.
Microsoft 365 Backup supports searching and filtering data in backups using metadata such as item and site names.
The solution is available in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Administrators can use partner apps to back up non-Microsoft 365 data. Partners include Veeam, Veritas, Barracuda, Rubrik, Commvault, and AvePoint.
Microsoft plans to launch the Microsoft 365 Backup preview in the fourth quarter of 2023. Interested organizations can register for pre-access on a dedicated page on the Microsoft website.
Microsoft 365 Archive
Microsoft 365 Archive is a Cold Storage solution designed to help organizations reduce storage costs. Regulations may require companies to retain data even when it is no longer actively used.
Microsoft 365 Archive adds a cold storage tier “to retain inactive or aging data in SharePoint at the best price for the information’s lifecycle stage.”
The solution supports full site archiving and, according to information from Microsoft, will also receive support for file-level archiving in the second half of 2024.
Interested organizations can register for pre-access on a separate page on the Microsoft website.
Cost not yet known
Both new backup products will launch as previews later this year. Microsoft has not yet disclosed the cost of these solutions. One of the main benefits of Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Archive is that both products run within a secure Microsoft infrastructure.
Also in Windows Insider Builds, Microsoft is testing a preview of a new consumer backup solution for Windows called Backup.
Its main purpose is to allow users to recover personal data when setting up a new Windows PC. The new tool supports apps from the Microsoft Store, as well as documents and media files.
