Choosing Between Microsoft and Third-Party Backup

Although Microsoft provides a broad set of backup and restore features in its product and service portfolio, organizations may want to consider third-party solutions instead. For example, some vendors offer the ability to compress backup data, to encrypt it, or to save backups in offsite storage, outside of Azure. In other cases, vendors fill gaps in Microsoft’s offerings, for example, providing offline backup for Microsoft 365 services.

Before considering a third-party solution, organizations should consider the following:

Long-term viability of the vendor. Backup is long-term function and investment of an IT organization, so a selected vendor should possess stability and financial viability. One indicator of such viability is a formal partnership between Microsoft and the vendor.

Media format. The format of the backup data and media should be accessible by the customer, that is, if the vendor’s restore software is for any reason unavailable, the customer should be able to recover the data.