Backup for Microsoft 365 Services Is Generally Available

Microsoft 365 Backup became generally available in late July 2024, providing capabilities for customers to back up and restore data for Microsoft 365 services. The service provides backup of Exchange Online mailboxes, OneDrive for Business accounts, and SharePoint Online sites using a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model based on the amount of data protected. Backups are stored using the Microsoft 365 Backup Storage platform (hosted in Azure), which is also available to Microsoft partners such as AvePoint, Veeam, and Veritas for use in their own offerings. Microsoft 365 Backup addresses scenarios involving potential large-scale data loss, such as ransomware attacks, that require mass data recovery with a short recovery point objective (RPO) to minimize lost work. Pricing for Microsoft 365 Backup is unchanged from the earlier paid preview and is based on the volume of data protected (not cumulative backups) at the cost of US$0.15 per GB per month. Availability in Government Community Cloud (GCC) is expected later in 2024, with support for backup of Teams chat planned for 2025. Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft 365 Backup at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-backup-blog/microsoft-announces-general-availability-of-microsoft-365-backup/ba-p/4205300.