Many organizations assume their Microsoft 365 (M365) data is protected because it lives in Microsoft’s cloud. The default retention settings say otherwise: Deleted Exchange Online items can be restored for 14 days (extendable to 30), and SharePoint and OneDrive recycle bins purge content after 93 days. After that, native recovery options run out.
A dedicated Microsoft 365 backup fills that gap. This post examines NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 across coverage, reliability, performance and pricing. It also covers Microsoft’s retirement of Exchange Web Services (EWS).
Why Back Up Microsoft 365?
Microsoft 365 runs under a shared responsibility model. Microsoft keeps the service available and secures its infrastructure, but its own cloud security guidance places the data itself, including its protection, on the customer’s side. A few scenarios show what happens without a backup:
- Accidental deletion discovered late: A user deletes a mailbox folder and nobody notices until a project reopens months later. By then, the item has aged out of Microsoft’s retention window, but a backup with a longer retention would still have it.
- Ransomware and malicious deletion: Malware or a rogue insider encrypts or wipes SharePoint and OneDrive content. Native versioning helps in some cases, but a determined attacker with the right permissions can override it. An immutable backup stored outside the tenant is far harder for anyone inside it to alter or delete.
- Retention-policy gaps: A Microsoft 365 data retention policy or litigation hold can preserve data, but neither is built as a recovery tool. Configuring them to cover every scenario is complex and sometimes impractical, while a backup offers a simpler, more complete way to restore a specific item.
The common thread: The customer, not Microsoft, owns the ability to recover Microsoft 365 data, and a dedicated M365 backup provides it.
NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365
NAKIVO Backup & Replication handles Microsoft 365 backup and recovery in the same web console it uses for virtual, physical and cloud workloads, so there’s no need for a separate tool per platform.
Coverage
NAKIVO backup for Microsoft 365 protects the four core Microsoft 365 workloads: Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams.
For Exchange Online, protection includes user, group and shared mailboxes plus in-place archives. As for OneDrive, the solution safeguards individual files and folders. SharePoint Online backups capture personal sites, document libraries, lists and files, and restores keep permissions and metadata intact, which spares admins a security cleanup afterward. Microsoft Teams coverage extends to private, public and organization-wide teams along with their settings and access rights.
Performance, reliability and recovery
NAKIVO backs up Microsoft 365 data incrementally using its own change-tracking technology. After the first full run, subsequent jobs copy only modified data, which keeps backup windows short and storage usage down. Everything runs in the background, so users keep full access to Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams throughout.
Retention is customizable, with support for thousands of recovery points, so point-in-time copies can go back as far as your policy requires. Backups can also be made immutable in local Linux-based repositories, cloud object storage or NEC HYDRAstor, which locks them against changes or deletion and helps protect them from ransomware. Data is encrypted at the source, in transit and at rest, and two-factor authentication and role-based access control limit who can reach the backup console.
Restores are granular: You can pick a single email, contact, calendar item, file, document library, list item or an entire site instead of rolling back a whole mailbox to retrieve one message. Advanced search locates specific items across backups, a practical need for organizations in regulated industries or when handling compliance and e-discovery requests.
Backup targets include on-premises storage, offsite locations and cloud platforms such as Amazon S3, Wasabi, Azure Blob, Backblaze B2 and other S3-compatible services. Spreading data across them keeps the recovery copy independent of Microsoft’s infrastructure and supports the 3-2-1-1 backup strategy that eliminates a single point of failure.
NAKIVO Microsoft 365 Backup Pricing
NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 uses a per-user subscription model. One license covers a user’s Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams data with no separate charge per service, and shared and group mailboxes don’t count toward the total. A 1-year subscription costs $0.95 per user per month, and a 3-year commitment brings it to $0.85, billed annually upfront with a 10-user minimum per order. It also combines with any other NAKIVO license type, subscription or perpetual, which supports organizations already protecting virtual or physical workloads.
You can evaluate the solution in your own environment with the free trial that provides full functionality for 15 days.
Per-user licensing keeps the total cost predictable: It scales linearly with the number of protected users, which makes the annual figure easy to calculate. When comparing Microsoft 365 backup pricing across vendors, treat the per-user rate as only part of the picture, since repository storage and per-workload charges also affect the real total.
MSP-Managed Backup for Microsoft 365 Users
For MSPs, the requirements for Microsoft 365 backup shift since this is a service delivered to clients rather than a tool used internally. A provider needs to manage many tenants from one console, keep each client’s data and access isolated and scale licensing as client headcounts change.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication supports MSP-managed backup for Microsoft 365 users through multi-tenancy: A single deployment can host up to 100 isolated tenants from a central MSP Console, and role-based access control separates what each administrator can see and do. Through the Self-Service Portal, clients can handle their own backup and recovery tasks within the permissions the provider assigns. Licensing is paid monthly or under an annual commitment, so costs scale up or down with demand.
The same capabilities support Microsoft 365 backup for large enterprises: Centralized management of a large user base, granular access control across administrative teams and flexible storage placement to meet internal or regulatory data-location requirements.
Microsoft EWS End of Life and Exchange Online Backup
EWS is a legacy application programming interface (API) that many software products, including backup tools and disaster recovery solutions, have used for years to access Exchange Online mailbox data. Microsoft is retiring it in favor of Microsoft Graph. Starting October 1, 2026, EWS is blocked by default, tenant by tenant, unless admins have enabled it with an allow list of approved apps; blocked tenants can still switch it back on temporarily. On April 1, 2027, the Microsoft EWS end of life arrives: EWS shuts down permanently in Exchange Online, with no option to re-enable it. On-premises Exchange Server is not affected.
The practical implication for backup buyers: A Microsoft 365 backup tool that still reads mailboxes through EWS loses access to them once EWS is disabled in a tenant. When evaluating vendors, confirm whether their Exchange Online protection uses Microsoft Graph or still depends on EWS.
The latest version of NAKIVO Backup & Replication supports the Microsoft Graph API for Exchange Online backup. Once updated, mailbox backups no longer need EWS and keep running after the April 2027 shutdown. OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams jobs don’t use EWS at all.
Conclusion
Microsoft keeps Microsoft 365 running, but once native retention windows close, getting lost data back is the customer’s job. NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 helps organizations meet that responsibility across Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams, combining granular restores with immutability, flexible storage targets and predictable per-user pricing. Multi-tenancy extends the same protection to MSPs, and Microsoft Graph support carries mailbox backups past the EWS retirement.
FAQ
Does Microsoft back up Office 365?
Microsoft does not provide a customer-controlled backup of Office 365 data. Native recovery is short-term: Deleted Exchange Online items can be restored for 14 days by default, and SharePoint and OneDrive recycle bins keep content for 93 days. Beyond those windows, recovering data is the customer’s responsibility, usually handled with a dedicated Microsoft 365 backup solution.
What does Microsoft 365 backup cost?
Microsoft 365 backup is typically priced per user on a subscription basis. NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365, for example, costs $0.95 per user per month on a 1-year plan or $0.85 on a 3-year commitment, and one license covers a user’s Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams data. Total cost also depends on backup storage and whether a vendor charges separately for each workload.
What are the best Microsoft 365 backup solutions?
The best Microsoft 365 backup solution is defined by capabilities, not brand.
Select one that supports:
- Coverage for Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams
- Granular, point-in-time recovery of individual items
- Immutability and encryption to protect the backups themselves
- Storage options that keep the backup copy outside the tenant
- Exchange Online backup through Microsoft Graph instead of the retiring Exchange Web Services
NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 meets these criteria and adds per-user pricing and multi-tenancy for MSPs.
