What Does Microsoft 365 Backup Really Cost?

Microsoft 365 backup cost depends on how much data you protect across Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams, how long you keep it and how quickly you need to restore it. Built-in recycle bins cover only short windows, so a separate backup is its own line item.

The move to cloud solutions such as Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online for email, OneDrive for file storage, Teams for collaborative work, among others) solves many companies’ infrastructure challenges. Many still believe “Microsoft backs up my data,” but that’s not entirely true, and understanding the difference can help you make sense of your total expenditure on backup.

The Hidden Risk: Cloud Does Not Equal Complete Backup

Although Microsoft 365 does offer high availability, redundancy, and recycling benefits, the platform was not designed to fully protect your company’s long-term data recovery needs.

There are a number of reasons why you may experience permanent loss of your data:

• Accidental deletion by users.
• Malicious insider activity.
• Ransomware attack.
• Sync errors leading to the file being overwritten.
• Loss of or gap in compliance, regulation, or retention obligations.
• Misconfigured third-party application integration.

Recycle bin and retention policies only assist with temporary recovery windows, and once those windows close, you will be unable to recover your data.

That’s where third-party backup solutions come in, and when the real cost becomes apparent.

Microsoft also sells its own Microsoft 365 Backup service for SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts and Exchange mailboxes. It is pay-as-you-go, with a list price of $0.15 per GB per month of protected content.

Why Microsoft 365 Backup Costs Vary So Widely

Backup pricing is always complicated because how your company uses Microsoft 365 is one way it may differ from vendor to vendor based on the way costs are structured, which includes many aspects.

Scope of Data Protection

For every area of your company that you want covered for backups, you will pay a higher price for those areas to have full protection from loss and corruption as well. Many times companies don’t realize that so much of their critical data resides outside of their email system these days. Teams’ conversations, shared documents, and project workspaces are common examples of valuable and irreplaceable company operational intelligence.

Storage Volume and Growth

Unlike traditional on-premises systems, data in the cloud grows without you being aware of it. The auto-save feature, version tracking, document sharing, and collaboration cause the amount of data that will need to be backed up to grow at an extraordinary rate. In addition, backup providers usually have to keep multiple copies of each of the versions of documents, causing that consumption of data to grow as well.

A team of four could typically grow to become a significant backup consumer very quickly within a year.

Retention Period Requirements

How long is historical data stored?

• Recovery (weekly/monthly)
• Archive (annual)
• Compliance (how long data needs to be retained for regulatory compliance)

Data retention adds to your overall costs long-term because when you keep data forever, you continue to pay for the storage. In fields such as finance, healthcare, and law, data retention is typically a challenge, so planning from day one when you’re doing backups is key.

Recovery Capabilities

Backups are more than just a data storage solution; they also need to allow you to quickly and accurately recover lost data.

The cost of recovery solutions often provides flexibility for how much data can be recovered.

• Restores to single emails or files
• Restore the full mailbox
• Restore the entire SharePoint site
• Restore across multiple users
• Restore to a specific point in time

Backup solutions that provide granular, quick recovery solutions typically provide a greater return on investment for the organization being impacted, particularly during a loss.

Security and Compliance Features

Backup solutions today also need to be able to protect against the potential for attacks (i.e., a cyberattack).

Advanced backup solutions provide protective solutions against these attacks.

• Immutable storage (storage that cannot be modified by unauthorized personnel)
• Encryption of data at rest and in transit
• Ransom ware detection
• Access control and audit trail features.
• Compliance reporting

Backup solutions must also have protective solutions in place for the backups themselves, which is becoming more and more important as hackers continue to target backup systems.

The True Cost of Not Having Proper Backup

Though many organizations may postpone adopting a backup plan to save money, the overall cost of losing data can actually be far more catastrophic than saving money.

For example, here are just a few of the possible repercussions:

• Business interruption;
• Loss of intellectual property;
• Exposure to legal action;
• Potential for fines and penalties due to not abiding by regulations;
• Damage to your company’s reputation;
• Operational turmoil;

One loss could be enough to make numerous years of backups worthwhile. Backups are a business risk insurance policy, not just an expense to IT.

Why Many Businesses Feel Overwhelmed

Pricing isn’t the only consideration when selecting a backup solution for Microsoft 365: understanding each solution’s options for clarity is key.

A lot of organizations struggle with the following questions prior to making an informed purchase:

• What do we need to protect?
• How big a backup will we need in the future?
• How critical is each aspect of the backup in receiving our data?
• How will we keep compliant?
• Are we paying too much or not enough for protection?

Without proper guidance, businesses risk either spending too much money on things they don’t need or spending too little money and leaving themselves vulnerable.

Where 365TUNE fits in backup planning

365TUNE is not a backup service. It is a Microsoft 365 license cost and security product that gives you facts a backup plan depends on: which accounts are active, which licenses are unused, and how your tenant is configured against 300+ CIS and CISA SCuBA controls. Rather than buying a “one-size-fits-all” backup package, start from how your organization actually uses Microsoft 365.

Tailored Protection Instead of Generic Packages

Every organization has different data profiles in Microsoft 365; therefore, a consulting company will have a different profile than a manufacturing company or a startup. Before choosing a backup package, evaluate:

• How you collaborate,
• What data is critical to you,
• What compliance obligations you have,
• Your overall security posture,
• Your expected growth trajectory.

Then align your backup strategy to reflect your actual operational needs.

Cost Optimization Without Sacrificing Protection

Instead of just adding more backups on top of what you already have in Microsoft 365, look for inefficiencies across your entire Microsoft 365 environment, such as:

• Eliminating redundant storage,
• Optimizing your retention policies,
• Streamlining your licensing,
• Identifying underutilized resources, and
• Aligning your backups to your organization’s priorities.

365TUNE covers the licensing part of this list: on every scan it flags inactive users and unused licenses, and its savings recommendations show what each change is worth before you add backup costs.

The outcome is removed inefficiencies and a balanced protection plan that is data-rich where it is absolutely necessary and economical where it is not.

Business-Focused Recovery Planning

Your backup plan should ensure your organization can recover quickly when a data-related incident occurs, so there is minimal loss of work.

Planning for potential risks in real life, i.e., deleted executive mailbox, compromised Teams workspace, corrupted SharePoint project site, accidental mass deletion, and incidents of security breaches.

Thus, the backup strategy is part of your organization’s business continuity plan and should not simply be considered an IT cleaning job.

Ongoing Guidance as Your Organization Evolves

Corporate Microsoft 365 environments continue to change due to new employees being added, team restructuring, project scope growth, and data growth over time.

Review your backup process regularly and adjust it to current conditions, rather than continuing to operate based on assumptions.

Final Thoughts

Microsoft 365 provides incredible productivity tools, but implementing an effective data protection strategy that includes a backup plan is a must. The total cost of your backup strategy will depend upon several factors, including storage and retention period, recovery capabilities, and security requirements.

The best way to consider your Microsoft 365 data protection strategy is to think about the amount of risk to your company and choose a backup solution accordingly, not to simply select the least expensive product or the most feature-rich product.

The goal is to transform your Microsoft 365 backup strategy from a confusing liability to an effective business continuity tool.