syscloud

Introduction

With over 258 million monthly active users, Microsoft 365 is one of the most popular cloud productivity services used by businesses. 

With work from home becoming the norm due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft 365 adoption has grown faster. Many businesses rely completely on OneDrive to share files, collaborate on documents thereby increasing the chances of accidental data deletions, user errors, and malicious attacks such as ransomware.  

It’s true that Micorosft provides advanced security features and DLP policies, but these are available only for Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Enterprise (E3 & E5) subscribers. Additionally, these services do not cover data loss incidents due to user errors and outages. Microsoft does not take responsibility for user-level data loss incidents. Don’t take our word for it; here is the link to their Services Agreement.

Therefore, having a reliable Microsoft 365 backup solution in place for your OneDrive should be an absolute necessity for any business. 
Choosing the right OneDrive backup solution can be cumbersome. That’s why we compiled the findings from our comparison study of  Microsoft 365 backup solutions in the market.
1

Vendors & Capabilities

In this evaluation, we compared 6 cloud data backup vendors (including SysCloud) for business productivity apps like Office 365. 

Note: We have focused only on cloud backup apps and left out vendors that back up Microsoft 365 data on-premise at customer locations or those using specialized hardware.

Vendors & Capabilities
SysCloud scored full points in our evaluation and stands #1 among the vendors included in this comparison study. SysCloud offers a comprehensive feature set and advanced data protection capabilities that are not available with other backup vendors. 
AvePoint scored 45  points in the evaluation and stands #2 to SysCloud. AvePoint offers reliable backup services with 4 times backup per day by default, compared to 3 times per day than most other cloud backup vendors offer.
Backupify scored an overall 43 points and stands #3 among the competitors. Backupify has comprehensive backup and restores features with a user-friendly dashboard.
Afi scored 41 and is ranked #4 in our evaluation, with a comprehensive restore feature set that stands third in the analysis and ransomware detection features. 
CloudAlly stands at #5 with a score of 32 points. CloudAlly delivers fast backup and restores along with end-user self-service options.
Spanning came last with a score of 30 points. It has a useful restore feature set but came short in most other criteria.
2

Evaluation Criteria

To objectively compare the six vendors, we used 6 broad performance metrics that take into consideration data backup requirements that are common across a diverse set of industries. Following are the 6 performance metrics we used to compare the solutions:
Evaluation Criteria
performance

Following are the performance metrics we used to rank the solutions

Advanced Archive Search Options

Advanced Archive Search Options

Available search options to locate files in the backup archive.

Data Archive Location

Data Archive Location

The choice to archive data in your own or preferred country.

Data Storage Platform

Data Storage Platform

The data center in which the backup is stored.

Backup Data Insights

Backup Archive Analytics (Backup Data Insights)

The ability to inspect backup archives to identify ransomware or compliance risks.

View More
Backup Apps Coverage

Backup Apps Coverage

The apps supported by the vendor for backup.

Information Management

Information Management

The availability of backup dashboard customizable reports.

Backup Security

Backup Security

The security of the files archived by the backup solution.

Feature Set

Feature Set

The various features available for IT administrators and end-users to backup, restore, and export files.

View More
3

Evaluation Results

The results of our evaluation are as shown in the table below. Each evaluation criterion is given a score and the overall score was used for the final ranking.
Evaluation Results

FeatureMaximum ScoreSysCloudAvePointBackupifyAFICloudAllySpanning

Advanced Archive Search

6

6

3

3

3

1

3

Data Archive Location

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

Backup Data Insights

10

10

5

0

5

0

0

Information Management

14

14

12

14

6

7

4

Backup Security

8

8

8

6

8

8

8

Feature Set

18

18

13

16

15

12

12

Overall Score60604543413231
4

Vendor Comparison

The in-depth, feature-based, product review of all 6 Microsoft 365 backup apps are given below. 
Vendor Comparison
Locate Lost Files

Advanced Archive Search to Locate Lost Files

Easily locating OneDrive files from the backup archives is a key requirement in any backup product. SysCloud scored the highest in locating lost files with advanced and granular search options while Spanning scored the lowest with limited search options.
CategoryMaximum Score
SysCloud
AvePoint
Backupify
Afi
CloudAlly
Spanning
User Search

1

Administrators can easily locate files in the backup archives for each user.

Admins can search by the user in the restore tab.

Administrators can easily locate files in the backup archives for each user.

Administrators can easily locate files in the OneDrive backup archives for each user.

CloudAlly supports a user-level search for all apps. Go to recovery, search active-backup accounts by the user.

Admins can search the backup archives by username, in the User section.

Keyword Search

2

Locate files in the archives using identifiers such as the doc name, doc ID, create date, folder name, shared with me/owned by me.

The advanced search option in the Restore Tab shows different criteria to search the archive content. Users can search using filters like content type, owner, date created, file size, parent list name, parent folder name, and more.

Keyword search in the meta description available at an account level.

Users can use advanced filter options to locate files in the backup archive.

Not available.

There is no filtered search option, with only keyword search options in the metadata available.

Content Search

3

Locate files in the archives using the keywords in the content of the document.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Data Archive Location

Data Archive Location

We evaluated vendors based on their ability to let customers choose where their backup archives are stored. Any vendor with more than one archive location scored the maximum points for this evaluation criterion.
CategoryMaximum Score
SysCloud
AvePoint
Backupify
Afi
CloudAlly
Spanning
Archive Location

4

SysCloud allows customers to choose between the US, Canada and UK regions to store their archive data.

AvePoint provides an option for customers to choose between the USA, EU, China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, LATAM, Taiwan.

Backupify offers geo-redundant storage. Customers can choose between the US (Pennsylvania), Canada (Toronto), United Kingdom (London), Germany (Munich), and Asia Pacific (Sydney) during onboarding. The storage location cannot be changed after configuration.

Customers can choose between the US and Europe.

Customers can choose between the US, Canada, European Union, Australia, UK, and Germany.

Customers can choose between the US and Europe.

Backup Archive Analytics

Backup Archive Analytics (Backup Data Insights)

We graded each cloud backup vendor based on their capability to detect ransomware and compliance gaps in the OneDrive archives. SysCloud scored the highest with advanced backup data insights, followed by AvePoint with its ability to detect compliance issues and Afi with its ransomware detection feature.
SysCloud’s Backup Data Insights feature has two critical features for IT administrators:
1.Detect the presence of ransomware files in OneDrive backup archives and restore the latest safe snapshot.
2.Identifying the presence of sensitive data or compliance risks such as PCI, HIPAA, etc in backup archives. 
CategoryMaximum Score
SysCloud
AvePoint
Backupify
Afi
CloudAlly
Spanning
Ransomware

Ability to identify ransomware in OneDrive archives.
5

SysCloud scans for ransomware in the backup archives and flags potential ransomware threats via the dashboard.

Not available.

Not available.

Afi scans for ransomware in the backup archives and flags the ransomware threat in the reports. \n It also displays the last clean snapshot unaffected by attacks for the user to perform restore.

Not available.

Not available.

Privacy and Compliance

Ability to identify sensitive data like PCI, HIPAA, in the backup archives.
5

SysCloud scans for any sensitive data in the backup archives and notifies the administrator. This feature is available only for premium customers.

Admins can set automatic privacy and security programs across archive content to satisfy the ‘Right to Be Forgotten and Data Subject Access’ requests. They can then delete this data to stay compliant.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Information Management

Information Management

Status Reports

CategoryMaximum Score
SysCloud
AvePoint
Backupify
Afi
CloudAlly
Spanning
Backup Status

2

The dashboard provides a complete backup health report for the past 30 days. Admins can drill down to see the number of in-progress and completed backup jobs for the domain.

There is a dashboard that shows the status of the backup in progress.

Displays the number of backups in progress.

Afi provides an overview tab that displays backup status for the past week, with the number of successful and failed backups, and backup warnings.

Not available.

The dashboard has a tab that shows the daily backup status of individual users.

Restore Status

2

The dashboard provides a complete restore health report for the past 30 days. Admins can drill-down to see the number of in-progress and completed restore requests.

There is a job monitor tab that shows the status of the restore progress.

Displays the number of restores in progress.

Not available.

Partially available, CloudAlly has no dashboard facility but it does show restore progress on a separate tab.

Not available.

Export Status

2

The dashboard provides a complete health report on export requests for the past 30 days. Admins can drill-down to see the number of in-progress and completed export requests.

There is a job monitor tab that shows the status of the export in progress.

Displays the number of exports in progress.

Not available.

Partially available, CloudAlly has no dashboard facility but it does show download progress on a separate tab.

Not available.

Dashboard Functionality

CategoryMaximum Score
SysCloud
AvePoint
Backupify
Afi
CloudAlly
Spanning
No. of Items Backed up

2

Admins can see the number of items backed up in each service all on one page.

The Dashboard displays the number of items backed up for the last 4 days. The total number of items backed up for each service in the past month is available on the Job Analytics page.

Backupify displays the number of files backed up for each Microsoft 365 app.

The dashboard shows the number of items backed up in each service, along with the percentage of increase in the usage.

Not available.

Not available.

Total Backup Size

2

The dashboard displays the total storage consumed by each service in the domain.

Not available.

Displays the total size of the backup archives for each app or for the whole domain.

Admin can see the total storage the backup occupies in each domain.

Partially available, CloudAlly provides the total size of each backup for each user on the backups tab. The size is available only on the user level.

Not available.

Audit Logs

CategoryMaximum Score
SysCloud
AvePoint
Backupify
Afi
CloudAlly
Spanning
In-Depth Audit Logs

2

Admins can configure audit reports for all the backup, restore, and export events.

Audit reports will be sent to the admin through email and they can track administrative activity and has a System Auditor tab.

Admins can configure and download audit reports, restore and export alerts.

There are separate task and audit reports available for download.

Admins can export audit reports that cover users deactivated, sign-in info, permission, and setting changed, notifications, backup, restore, and export activities.

Spanning provides downloadable audit reports.

Reports

2

Admins can access app-level reports on restore & export.

Not available.

Provides app level restore and export reports.

Not available.

Provides app level restore and export reports.

Not available.

Security

Security

FeatureMaximum ScoreSysCloudAvePointBackupifyAFICloudAllySpanning

SOC II Type 2 Audited

2

Virtual Private Cloud

2

AES Encryption

2

TLS Security Encryption

2

Total8886888
Feature Set

Feature Set

We evaluated all the vendors based on 12 critical backup and restore features. SysCloud scored the highest with a comprehensive set of backup and restore features followed by Backupify lacking only in content-based data exclusion/inclusion for backup option. 

Backup Features

CategoryMaximum Score
SysCloud
AvePoint
Backupify
Afi
CloudAlly
Spanning
3x Backup/Day

Ability to backup 3 times a day and access multiple snapshots.
2

SysCloud provides 1x/day backup by default. Admins can raise a ticket to configure a 3x/day backup.

Backups run up to 4 times a day, every day.

Admins can configure 3x/day backup.

Admins can configure different backup frequencies for every user. AFI provides 3x/day, 1x/day, 1x/day on weekdays, and manual backup.

Not available. CloudAlly only provides automatic 1x backup daily, every 3 days, or weekly.

Provides only 1x/day backup by default.

Content-based Inclusion/Exclusion

Filter data based on content format or file size before starting the backup.
2

Admins can exclude data to be backed up based on the file type or size.

Admins can configure daily 1x or 3x backup.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Auto Backup New Users

Automatically identify and backup new Microsoft 365 users.
1

Admins have the option to automatically protect new users added to Microsoft 365.

There is an auto-discovery option available.

Admins have the option to enable auto backup for new users added in the Microsoft 365 domain.

Admins have the option to ‘automatically protect new resources’.

Admins can choose to activate the auto-backup in the domain settings to automatically backup new users.

Not available.

Hold Backup for Suspended Users

Retain the backup archive of a user deleted or suspended from Mic.
2

Admins can define the retention period for deleted/suspended users as unlimited or customized periods.

AvePoint offers long-term retention policies.

Admins can hold the backup for suspended users with no additional cost.

Admins can retain data for archived (suspended or deleted) users with no additional licensing cost.

There is an option to retain auto-archived accounts indefinitely or for a specific number of days.

Spanning holds the suspended and deleted user data as long as a license is assigned to the user.

Configurable Retention Period

Configure data retention periods based on users.
1

Admins can configure unlimited or customized data retention periods.

The app provides unlimited configurable retention periods.

Admins have the flexibility to configure unlimited or custom retention periods.

The app provides an unlimited retention period for all the Service Level Agreements (SLA) by default and they are not configurable by the customer.

Not available. CloudAlly provides unlimited retention periods by default. No configurable options are available.

Admins can configure data retention.

Restore Features

CategoryMaximum Score
SysCloud
AvePoint
Backupify
Afi
CloudAlly
Spanning
Point in Time Restore

2

Admins can restore multiple versions of the OneDrive files from the archives.

The app provides version history for OneDrive.

Backupify supports PIT restore for OneDrive files.

Admins can restore a point-in-time version of a file for OneDrive.

Admins can restore the latest version of a file.

Admins can restore a point-in-time version of a file for OneDrive.

Restore with Sharing Permissions

1

Admins can restore OneDrive files without affecting the sharing permissions.

Admins can restore files and folders without losing the original sharing permissions.

Admins can restore OneDrive files without affecting the sharing permissions.

Admins can restore OneDrive files with sharing permissions intact.

Not available.

Not available.

End-User Self-Service Recovery

2

Admins can authorize users to restore their own files.

Admins can authorize users to restore their own files.

Admins can authorize users to restore their own files.

Admins can authorize users to restore their own files.

Admins can authorize users to restore their own files.

Admins can authorize users to restore their own files.

Offline Export

1

SysCloud sends emails with links with download links so that customers can access the exported data without logging into the account.

Offline export is available.

Offline export is available.

Offline export is available.

Offline export is available.

Offline export is available.

Restore with Nested Folder Structure

2

Admins can restore OneDrive files with their folder-structure intact.

Admins have the option to restore files back to their original location without losing the original folder structure.

Admins can restore files keeping the folder structure intact.

Afi keeps the OneDrive folder structure intact in their backup archives for easy restores.

CloudAlly replicates the OneDrive folder structure in the archives.

Spanning has adopted the OneDrive folder structure for the archives for easy access and restoration from the backup archives.

Cross-User Restore

1

Admins can restore the data to the same user or a different user in the domain with sharing permissions and folder structure intact.

Admins can restore data to the same user or a different user in the same domain.

Admins can restore data to the same user or a different user in the same domain.

Admins can restore data to the same user or a different user in the same domain. They can also choose to enable this feature for other users in the domain.

Admins can restore files to the same user or another user in the same domain

Admins can restore files to the same user or another user in the same domain.

Restore to Custom Folder

1

SysCloud provides the option to restore OneDrive files to a custom folder.

Admins have the option to restore files back to their original location or to a separate restore folder.

The backup data is restored to a separate folder by default.

Users have a choice to recover files to a seperate folder or overwrite existing data.

The files are automatically restored to a separate folder.

Admins have the option to restore files to their original folder and overwrite existing data or restore them to a separate folder.

5

Concluding Remarks

Concluding Remarks

SysCloud performed the best with advanced feature sets and backup data protection features for OneDrive. AvePoint came second with comprehensive backup features and compliance regulation features for backup archives. 

The other apps fell short because they had limited feature sets and lacked the flexibility demanded by  IT administrators to back up OneDrive files. 

To read a more comprehensive review of the Microsoft 365 cloud backup provided by all the vendors included in this study, click here

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