Microsoft 365 Backup Costs: Complete Guide
According to the Microsoft 365 Shared Responsibility Model, users are responsible for keeping their data safe; Microsoft is only responsible for the availability of its infrastructure and applications. As a Microsoft 365 user, you must implement effective data protection measures, including backup and recovery.
How much does it cost to back up Office 365? Microsoft 365 backup pricing can vary depending on the chosen solution and infrastructure size, among other factors. This blog post describes the main factors influencing Office 365 backup pricing and provides top recommendations to minimize overall costs when protecting Microsoft 365 data.
Microsoft 365 Backup Costs Breakdown
The complete O365 backup pricing breakdown below can help you understand how to calculate the total cost for the required solution and tools. The key elements shaping the total cost include:
- Licensing and subscription bills
- Setup and implementation costs
- Storage prices
- Data recovery fees
Below, we review each element in detail.
Licensing and subscription bills
Licensing and subscription fees can take up a considerable part of the overall Microsoft 365 backup cost. The license price may depend on the following:
- The vendor’s pricing model
- The number of Microsoft 365 accounts to protect
- The structure of the subscription
- The volume of data to back up (and recover)
Make sure you understand the elements contributing to the final Microsoft 365 backup cost for your organization. You can then balance your data protection needs with the vendor’s features and payment requirements.
For example, the cost is stable and flat when calculated based on the number of Microsoft 365 tenants. The number of users inside your Office 365 tenants and the volume of data to back up don’t change the sum of the license bill. This can be beneficial for both SMBs and enterprises.
Alternatively, the pay-as-you-go pricing model based on the consumed storage capacity increases the total cost when the volumes of data to protect grow. Thus, you can flexibly manage your Microsoft 365 backup pricing by paying extra when you need additional space.
These are the main licensing options that you can consider. You need to determine your organization’s budget, review your use cases and pick the most suitable option.
Other factors to consider are the number of users, the overall data volume to back up and the contract duration between your organization and the vendor. Bills may increase along with team members and data assets. Monitoring your licensing due dates and thoroughly discussing renewal policies with the vendor is recommended to avoid unexpected increases in Microsoft 365 backup costs.
Setup and implementation costs
The initial setup process for a third-party Microsoft 365 backup solution can also consume resources and increase the total cost. Although these are usually one-time payments, the complexity and specifics of your IT infrastructure can make a significant difference. Integrating an environment with 20 to 30 user accounts and several terabytes of cloud data is relatively inexpensive. In contrast, an organization with two or more IT sites or departments with a hybrid cloud for collaboration may need to invest more when installing and setting up a backup solution.
If an organization has legacy infrastructure elements or large data volumes to back up, initial backup processes or data migration can lead to additional overhead. Data fragmentation across machines, platforms and departments also complicates backup workflows, putting more load on production hardware and networks. In complex cases, integrating with a backup solution can result in temporary service quality reduction or business downtime.
Also, a ramified and complicated infrastructure may require additional consultations or IT services. You may need a professional to plan and execute the installation, setup and integration of the Microsoft 365 backup solution. This thorough process is necessary for enterprise organizations to ensure reliable data protection and backup recoverability across all sites despite adding upfront payments.
Some vendors can help you reduce the total Microsoft 365 backup cost by offering free installation and initial data protection setup. Such solutions usually include service fees in subscription or perpetual licensing. Backup solutions with easy and straightforward setup processes help organizations reduce costs and minimize operational load.
Storage tiers pricing
Another factor affecting the cost of Microsoft 365 backup is storage tiering. Vendors usually offer three main tiers:
- Hot storage. In this tier, you should keep the critical data regularly needed to enable business operations. Hot storage is the most expensive but also the fastest to access and restore data.
- Cold storage. This tier is for data that you need occasionally. The prices for cold storage are usually balanced, and so are the access and recovery times.
- Archive storage. The data you need to keep but don’t need to access goes to the archive tier. This storage has the lowest fees combined with the slowest recovery times.
The key is to know your data access requirements and send it to the appropriate storage. For example, cost-efficient archive storage repositories are mainly suitable for data you don’t use but need to keep for regulatory compliance. You might need to place some backups in hot storage for daily access, even though the higher storage tier is available at a higher price.
Besides placing your data in the appropriate storage tier, the total Microsoft Office 365 cloud backup pricing depends on data management and capacity planning. Renting too little storage can lead to unexpected recalculations and additional budget burdens. Having too much space results in unnecessary overpayments. Regular storage assessments can help you avoid such financial inconveniences.
Lastly, some vendors may not tier storage and provide fast recovery times for any Microsoft 365 data object. This usually enhances overall data availability while the storage price remains affordable. Organizations can then balance their expenses with operational needs for additional efficiency.
Data recovery fees
As a rule, backup vendors don’t charge much for backup uploads. However, things can change when you need to recover large datasets, especially from archive storage. You might need to evaluate restoration fees closely, as their total amount depends on the complexity of your recovery requests.
Vendors can charge per:
- Data volumes: More data to recover can lead to higher recovery fees. This can be critical when restoring many data objects or full Microsoft 365 mailboxes simultaneously.
- Recovery speed: Vendors can offer regular recovery options with moderate data restoration speeds. If your recovery is urgent, the vendor can require extra payments for priority workflow processing.
Additional Factors Influencing Microsoft 365 Backup Costs
Organizations can have internal requirements and expectations that also change the total cost of data backups.
Data retention needs
Microsoft 365 backup pricing depends on the organization’s data retention policies, especially with long-term storage. Maintaining regulatory compliance can mean that you need to store data for years. For example, businesses in some countries may need to store employment records for 7 years to comply with specific laws.
Storing data for extended periods poses specific cost considerations due to storage planning. Although archive storage is the most affordable, costs can still grow due to long-term retention.
Security and compliance
Compliance and security features are essential when evaluating data protection solutions, but they can increase Microsoft 365 backup costs. For instance, implementing backup encryption as required by data compliance regulations worldwide usually increases resource consumption, indirectly raising system costs.
Features like multi-factor authentication (MFA) lead to cost inflation and increased operational expenses. If your organization needs to meet HIPAA or GDPR standards, it may need to invest in specialized security solutions.
Maintenance and support
Maintenance and support costs for Microsoft 365 backup solutions vary depending on the service level and response time your organization needs. Mainly, vendors offer two support models:
- Basic support – available during business hours, more affordable and less responsive.
- Premium support – available 24/7, more expensive but you can receive near-instant help.
Fees for security patching and software updates are another thing to consider. Vendors can include them in the final cost of perpetual or subscription licenses or ask for separate payments for expert consultations and manual updates. In some cases, educational or training materials to help your in-house specialists master the solution can come at an additional price.
Tips for Minimizing Microsoft 365 Backup Costs
Microsoft Office 365 backup pricing can vary significantly, depending on the vendor’s demands, required features, desired data availability and recoverability levels, among other factors. The good news is that you can optimize the cost of Microsoft 365 backups. Consider implementing the following recommendations in your backup strategy to reduce the system TCO and make your data protection more cost-efficient.
Tailor data retention
When you store data without managing it, you usually overpay. For example, you can use an expensive hot-tier storage to store data you don’t need to access frequently. On the other hand, organizations tend to keep archive data for no specific purpose, increasing the archive storage bills.
Consider implementing custom and adjustable backup retention policies to reduce costs. Set automated data deletion to improve storage space management and prevent overpayments for unnecessary volumes. Lastly, you should understand regulatory requirements and then configure data retention strategies accordingly instead of simply sending everything to archives.
Predict and plan scaling
To further reduce Microsoft 365 backup costs, you should be aware of your current and future storage requirements. Keep track of your organization’s growth trends to avoid an unexpected increase in backup expenses. This also includes team expansion, changes in technology and external partnerships.
Your backup solution’s pricing structure and network bandwidth requirements are two more things to consider. The vendor’s licensing policies and subscriptions should have flexible scalability to align storage capacities with the growth of your data volumes on demand. Thorough network bandwidth calculation and proper traffic management help prevent bottlenecks and additional costs.
Consult backup vendors
Whether choosing a solution or looking for opportunities to reduce your current Microsoft 365 backup cost, learn everything you can about the vendor’s pricing models. You can send them direct quote requests or use pricing calculators where possible. The goal is to collect information, analyze the price structure and find potential savings and negotiation points.
Additionally, you can ask about specific discounts, for example, for long-term service contracts or large data volumes. Plus, picking all-in-one solutions to back up your Microsoft 365 services enables you to simplify supply chain management and ensure smooth software integration.
Use native Microsoft 365 capabilities
Microsoft 365 has native features and functions that can be helpful in some cases. For example, Microsoft enables you to configure retention policies to organize short-term storage without additional tools. You can use the multi-level Recycle Bin functionality and support for versioning to quickly restore deleted items and point-in-time versions of files.
Versioning and Recycle Bin capabilities can be effective in ongoing data management and collaboration, but they can’t replace a backup. These native features, in addition to Litigation Hold, can work for basic data management and retention but not protection and recovery in case of data loss.
Reducing Microsoft 365 Backup Costs with NAKIVO
NAKIVO Backup & Replication is a comprehensive backup solution for Microsoft 365 data. You can protect data in Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online from a single interface. This helps you streamline management and simplify the supply chain, thus reducing the total Microsoft 365 backup cost.
With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, you can back up Microsoft 365 data to on-premise storage or directly to the cloud of your choice (Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Microsoft Azure Blob or generic S3-compatible storage). Amazon EC2, SMB/NFS file shares and deduplication appliances are also supported. This allows you to implement the 3-2-1 backup rule and diversify storage vendors according to your policies and requirements.
The solution includes features that enhance protection against ransomware and ensure regulatory compliance. You can enable immutability to on-premise and cloud backups and apply end-to-end backup encryption.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication enables flexible recovery of entire accounts or particular data objects. For compliance purposes, you can use the advanced search functionality to find email messages, calendar events or contact items, among other objects, and then restore them to the original or custom location.
You can use NAKIVO Backup & Replication with a subscription license calculated per user. The longer the subscription, the more affordable your final Microsoft 365 backup pricing becomes. The license is billed annually and paid upfront, simplifying budget planning and avoiding unexpected renewal expenses. 24/7 support is included.
Conclusion
Microsoft 365 backup pricing depends on numerous factors, including the vendor’s licensing price and the fees related to setup, storage, and recovery. To reduce the total Microsoft 365 backup cost, you can tailor retention policies, thoroughly plan your infrastructure scaling, and use the available native M365 capabilities.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication can provide cost-effective Microsoft 365 data backup and recovery for SMBs and enterprises. You can install the free trial and test the solution in your environment for 15 days without limitations.
