Probax MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 vs Datto Backupify:

A Comprehensive Comparison of Features


Protecting your business data and ensuring uninterrupted operations have become the top priority for SMBs. 

Datto Backupify for Microsoft 365 presents a popular solution to protect data in your M365 subscription. However, since each business has unique data protection requirements, MSPs seeking to offer a Microsoft 365 backup solution need to understand the options available before deciding on the best solution for their needs.

Probax MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 powered by Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 has been gaining traction as a credible alternative to Datto Backupify, especially for MSPs seeking the best product for their clients. 

That’s because Probax’s Microsoft 365 backup solution addresses many of the challenges that Backupify simply can’t match, including factors like flexibility, scalability, and recovery options.

In this article, we’ll compare Probax MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 with Datto Backupify to provide you with everything you need to know to make it easier to decide if you should make the switch. 

What Is Backupify for Microsoft 365?

Backupify for Microsoft 365 is a backup solution designed to provide automated and secure cloud backup and recovery services for Microsoft 365 environments. It covers  Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams.

With Backupify's backup service for M365, it’s possible to restore accidentally or maliciously deleted Office 365 data. It also acts as a safeguard against data loss resulting from former employees' actions or de-provisioned licenses.

Moreover, Backupify offers protection from potential disruptions caused by Microsoft  365 app outages, failed third-party integrations, or ransomware attacks, ensuring business continuity.

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 vs Backupify: An In-Depth Comparison

Like many Backup as a Service (BaaS) vendors, Backupify isn’t free of limitations. 

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 provides an alternative solution for M365 protection, without compromising benefits such as flexibility, scalability, efficiency, and advanced search and recovery options. 

To elaborate, let’s look at the features of MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 and compare them with Datto Backupify in detail. 

Comparing Recovery Options

Alternate Restore Options

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 offers alternate restore options that allow the restoration of individual items or entire folders and sites via zip download for OneDrive and SharePoint, or pst download for Exchange Online. 

In comparison, Backupify has limited alternate restore options, such as only downloading as a zip file or a cumbersome export process, making the recovery process less user-friendly.

Bulk Recovery

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 stands out with its capability to recover multiple Exchange mailboxes, OneDrive files, or Teams chats in a single restore job. This feature significantly reduces recovery time, especially for customers with many users.

On the other hand, Backupify's recovery options require manual recovery of users one by one in many cases.

Advanced Search

With Veeam-powered MSP Backup for Microsoft 365, it’s easy to conduct advanced searches, using centralized search across multiple users or sites, along with numerous filters. Previewing items before recovery, particularly in Exchange Online, further enhances the recovery process.

Backupify's support for advanced search is comparatively limited, often lacking the ability to search across users or sites and providing only basic search filters. Additionally, the ability to preview items before restoration may not be available or is restricted.

Self-Service Restore Portal

MSP Backup offers an intuitive and simple to use self-service restore portal, empowering MSPs to easily handle restore tasks for managed Microsoft data. The portal supports Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Teams, adding to its versatility.

On the flip side, Backupify’s self-service restore options are quite limited, not covering all M365 services or users. 

Comparing Backup Capabilities

Multiple Backup Jobs per Microsoft 365 Organization

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 enables multiple backup jobs per Microsoft 365 environment to be run (when on the Professional plan), providing more flexible Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) for different data sets.

Conversely, Backupify typically limits the number of backup jobs that can be created per Microsoft 365 organization.

Flexible Backup Scheduling

The innovative MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 solution enables customers to set different backup schedules for their data with flexible backup frequencies, start times, and backup windows.

Most BaaS vendors, like Backupify, simply lack this flexibility since the backup frequency and time are predetermined by the vendor, with restrictive backup frequency options.

Retention Period

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 allows the retention of backups for desired periods, including one-year retention on the Essentials plan and indefinitely on the Professional plan. This offers MSPs the freedom to set retention periods according to the compliance, file sharing, and archiving requirement needs of their customers.,.

Backupify offers something similar, but it lacks the customization options present in MSP Backup.

Backup Copies

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 supports adding backup copies to a secondary repository, which drastically improves redundancy and resiliency in data protection.

In contrast, Backupify doesn’t offer similar functionality, limiting redundancy options.

Workloads On-Premises

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 offers comprehensive protection for Exchange and SharePoint applications running on-premises, as well as hybrid configurations that combine cloud M365 workloads with on-premises Exchange and SharePoint data. This ensures seamless data protection for diverse infrastructure setups.

On the other hand, Backupify isn’t capable of protecting on-premises workloads as it’s limited to Microsoft 365 environments only, leaving on-premises deployments exposed to data loss risks or the incremental expense of a different set-up for on-premise data protection.

Infrastructure Flexibility

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 provides unmatched deployment flexibility, allowing to the implementation of the solution on any infrastructure, whether it be on-premises, hybrid or 100% in the cloud.

Backupify, on the other hand, restricts users to a specific public cloud provider, which may or may not be suitable for their specific business requirements.

Backup Immutability

Backup immutability provides an additional layer of security for your data. With Veeam’s Direct-to-Object Storage capabilities inbuilt into MSP Backup, backups can be made immutable with Wasabi hot cloud storage. 

Per contra, Backupify doesn’t offer immutable backups. 

Monitoring and Reporting

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365’s centralized web console makes it easy to monitor everything in the data protection solution, including backups, restores, administrative jobs, infrastructure components, SLAs, and compliance requirements. Detailed reports offer valuable insights into each component's performance.

BaaS competitors typically have limited tracking capabilities, focusing mainly on backup, restore, and administrative tasks. This lack of detailed information in reports may hinder organizations from gaining comprehensive insights into their data protection processes.

Notifications

Probax MSP Backup for Microsoft 365's notification system provides timely updates on job results (success, warning, failure), licensing, infrastructure problems, license usage, and potential issues, so action can be swiftly taken whenever something out-of-the-ordinary arises.

In contrast, Backupify only sends notifications about specific jobs, and it’s tricky to configure notification settings for each recipient individually. 

Why Probax MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 is the Best Backupify Alternative for your MSP’s M365 Backup 

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 offers numerous advantages over Backupify, which include:

  • Advanced monitoring and reporting capabilities: MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 provides advanced monitoring and reporting capabilities with an intuitive and easy-to-use centralized web console, providing total control over all your clients’ M365 data, all managed from a centralized web console in a single pane of glass.
  • Backup flexibility: With MSP Backup for Microsoft 365, you can customize your backups by changing the protection level for each client and seat based on the criticality of the data they deal with. 
  • Automated health verification: MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 provides automated health verification which pre-emptively counteracts data loss, with unmatched automated recovery testing for each backup restore point.
  • Automated backups and reporting: MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 reduces process management and enables your MSP to stay in control of the frequency of automated backups daily or three times per day according to your clients’ RPO requirements. Automated reporting for your MSP and end users reduces admin time.
  • Recovery efficiency and flexibility: MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 offers multiple recovery options for different types of data to keep downtime at a minimum in case of disaster, enabling you to recover mission-critical data with the lowest RPOs regardless of the amount of data loss or number of users affected.
  • Reliability: MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 serves as a comprehensive vendor for data protection, offering a single platform to protect all workloads across your MSP customer base. With a large team of experts, Probax provides excellent customer service and resources. In comparison, Backupify can introduce unnecessary complexity to your organization and require third-party tools for basic needs.

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 vs Backupify: The Final Verdict

When comparing the features and benefits, Probax MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 powered by Veeam stands out as a superior alternative to Backupify for Microsoft 365 backup, notably with its backup, recovery, and flexibility.

It provides you with the ability to deliver the appropriate level of protection to various data sets based on their business value. 

With MSP Backup for Microsoft 365, you can customize backup schedules, adjusting the automatic backup frequency to match your specific business needs. This level of granularity allows you to prioritize critical data with more frequent backups, even down to minutes. 

Moreover, you can implement different Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) for distinct data sets by creating multiple backup policies, such as gold, silver, and bronze, each catering to the different backup requirements of your clients.

Further, Probax MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 ensures minimal business downtime through its broad array of recovery options, in alignment with your business priorities. 

For example, you can restore data to either the original user or a different user, via email, or even on-premises. Such flexibility in recovery methods ensures a smooth and efficient recovery process that adapts to your unique circumstances.

MSP Backup for Microsoft 365 also ensures that your backup software remains fully operational even during major infrastructure changes, allowing for seamless backup operations. The recovery process is designed to be scalable and efficient. 

With advanced search capabilities, finding specific items buried within large sets of backup data becomes a breeze across users and sites. Additionally, admins can easily perform bulk recoveries for multiple users simultaneously, saving time and manual effort in large environments.

Looking for an MSP Alternative to Datto Backupify?

Explore the simplicity and true power of Probax MSP Backup for yourself! No complicated setup or additional products are required for you to start protecting your data. 

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