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Microsoft’s shared-responsibility model says they keep the service running. Securing your data is explicitly your job.
A SaaS backup product copies your Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce or Entra ID data out of the platform on a schedule and can put it back — an item, a mailbox, a site, an org’s metadata — after the recycle bin and the retention window have passed, or after an admin or an attacker emptied them.
Microsoft’s own Service Agreement recommends third-party backup. Commvault publishes $1.70–4.50 per user per month; Barracuda $3.40 with unlimited storage. Microsoft’s native Microsoft 365 Backup is $0.15 per GB per month — real backup, inside the same tenant.
Already decided — before the seat count
Still yours to weigh
What SaaS backup actually is — and what it is not
Your mail, files, chats, CRM records and directory live in someone else’s cloud. That vendor promises uptime, redundancy and security of the service — and in the same contract says that the data is yours to protect. A SaaS backup product takes an independent copy out of the platform every day, keeps it for as long as you decide, and restores it in place: one item, one mailbox, one SharePoint site, one Salesforce object’s metadata, one Entra ID group with its members and policies.
Four things decide the purchase. Which platforms are covered at depth — Microsoft 365 beyond mail, Google Workspace, Salesforce with metadata, Dynamics, and Entra ID, which almost nobody offers and everyone needs. Restore granularity — in-place restore versus export. Where the copy lives — vendor storage, your storage, and whether India is documented. Seat behaviour — what a dormant or departed user costs. The data-centre half of this decision is the backup and recovery guide; the directory, when it is the incident, is on both.
The most common mis-purchase
Assuming a retention policy is a backup. Retention keeps what exists from being deleted before a date; it does not give you back a mailbox an admin purged, a site an attacker encrypted, or the tenant’s state as of last Tuesday. Governance control, not recovery control.
Often confused withBackup & Recovery — the servers, VMs and databases half →·Cyber Recovery — when the attacker deletes the backups too →·Email Security — stopping the message before it becomes the incident you restore from →
The four routes of backup and cyber resilience — and which one is yours →
Recycle bin vs native retention vs true backup — and the shared-responsibility model
Four things that get called “backup” in a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace tenant. They answer different failure modes; only one of them is an independent copy.
Recycle bin and versioning
Deleted items wait 30–93 days (platform and workload dependent) and files keep versions. Answers: a user deleted something last week. Fails: an admin emptied it, a retention window passed, an attacker encrypted the versions too, or the account itself is gone.
Native retention policies
Microsoft Purview retention, Google Vault holds. Keep content from being destroyed until a date, for compliance. Answers: the regulator asks for this in three years. Fails: point-in-time restore of a mailbox or site, bulk recovery after ransomware, anything after the policy ends — Google states Vault is not a backup; Microsoft recommends third-party backup.
True backup
An independent, scheduled copy held outside the production tenant (or in a separate, locked store), restorable in place to a point in time — item, mailbox, site, org, directory. Answers: it is gone, or corrupted, or encrypted, and you need last Tuesday back. Microsoft's own Microsoft 365 Backup ($0.15 per GB per month) is real backup too — inside the same tenant.
The shared-responsibility model
The platform vendor is responsible for the service — uptime, infrastructure, security of the platform. You are responsible for the data — access, retention, backup, recovery. Microsoft's Service Agreement says it in plain words. Answers: whose fault is it? Yours, contractually, unless you bought the copy.
Six things decide this purchase. The feature grid is none of them.
Six variables decide this purchase. The instrument tests the ones documentation can verify (platforms and depth, Entra ID, Salesforce metadata, storage ownership and inclusion, India); restore granularity, leaver pricing and the Teams API are prose because the honest answer is a contract line or a configuration.
Which SaaS platforms are covered at depth
Microsoft 365 (mail is easy; Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive are where products thin out), Google Workspace, Salesforce, Dynamics 365 and Entra ID are different engineering problems. A product that does one well may do another at export-only depth.
Retention period and the cost curve
Unlimited retention at a flat price (Barracuda, AvePoint) versus storage metered or licensed separately (Rubrik, Cohesity's capacity option, Microsoft per GB). Retention is where seven-year mailboxes live.
Restore granularity
Item, mailbox, site, channel, org metadata — restored in place, or exported to a file you then re-import. Export-only is the tell.
Where the backup is stored and India residency
Vendor-held (most), your own storage (Veeam self-hosted, Commvault and AvePoint bring-your-own, Cohesity on your cluster), and whether an India region is documented (Druva, Barracuda, Commvault, Acronis, Veeam).
Entra ID / directory object backup
Users, groups, roles, conditional-access policies and app registrations — the blast radius of a compromised admin. Offered by few; needed by everyone; sometimes a separate SKU.
Seat-based pricing with dormant and departed users
Per-user pricing meets seven-year retention when a leaver's mailbox must be kept. Capacity pricing (Cohesity) and unlimited-storage models (AvePoint, Barracuda) answer it differently; the rest is contract language.
Narrow 20 products to your shortlist
Set what is true for you. A product that fails a constraint fades with its reason printed on it; one we cannot verify for your tenant is marked and stays. Every chip is reversible.
Which platform
Where the backup lives
India
Tenant size
Leaver pricing, Teams private chats and restore granularity are in the notes below, not chips — the first two are contract lines, the third is documented across the Microsoft 365 products here and differs mainly for Salesforce metadata.
per user / month Foundation list by volume (251+ → 10–50 users); Advanced adds Entra ID; Central India Azure region; self-hosted Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 is the bring-your-own-storage form
Microsoft 365 tenants that want the most-deployed M365 backup engine either as Veeam-hosted SaaS with storage included or self-hosted on storage they own.
The catch: Microsoft 365 only in this SKU (Salesforce and Entra ID are siblings — Entra ID also listed at $14.10 per user per year); Google Workspace is not offered; Premium is the tier with unthrottled restore.
per Salesforce user / year; software you deploy (Linux + PostgreSQL) in your own cloud or data centre — the data never leaves your storage
Salesforce estates that want records and metadata backed up into storage they control, with compare-and-restore into the org and sandbox seeding.
The catch: Salesforce only; you run the server and own the database; quote-only — and immutability is whatever your storage enforces.
per user / month published list for Microsoft 365 by tier; Salesforce $3.60 per user / month; Azure storage (Air Gap Protect) included; SaaS available in India; bring-your-own storage optional
Organisations that want Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Salesforce backed up by the same platform that protects the data centre — with a published list price and included immutable storage.
The catch: Entra ID is a sibling SKU (Backup for Active Directory & Entra ID), not this one; Google Workspace is not offered; the lowest list tier is mail-centric — read which workloads each tier includes.
per user / object, on quote; on-prem AD forest recovery and Entra ID objects, attributes, groups, roles and policies
Estates where the directory is the blast radius: Entra ID and Active Directory objects backed up, compared and restored — including a full forest rebuild.
The catch: Identity only — mail, files and Teams are the sibling SaaS SKU; quote-only; Okta is not in this product.
per user / month reported (Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace; Salesforce ~$3.50 reported); AWS Mumbai region; Entra ID, AD and Okta are the separate Identity Resilience plans
Organisations on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace — often both — that want one SaaS console for mail, files, Teams, Drive and Salesforce with an India region and no infrastructure.
The catch: Reported not published pricing; Dynamics 365 is not covered; Entra ID protection is a separate Identity Resilience SKU rather than in the per-user SaaS price; no bring-your-own storage.
per user / month indicative through partners (UK G-Cloud lists £1.50 per user / month for Microsoft 365); unlimited storage; bring-your-own Azure / AWS storage optional
Estates with the widest SaaS surface — Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Azure — that want one backup contract across all of it, with unlimited storage.
The catch: Indicative partner pricing rather than a public list; AvePoint’s own data-centre list (Azure and Google Cloud) has no India region; how immutability is enforced on the included storage is not established from documentation — marked unknown, not assumed.
set by the MSP — Acronis publishes no end-customer price, only per-workload or per-GB licensing for service providers (agentless for Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, Gmail, Drive, Contacts, Calendar); Mumbai data centre
MSP-run organisations that want Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace backup from the same partner, console and India data centre as their endpoint backup and security.
The catch: Sold and priced through partners only; Salesforce and Dynamics are not covered; Entra ID object backup and whether storage is inside the per-seat price are not established from documentation — flagged, not assumed.
per user / month list; unlimited storage and retention; Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams and Entra ID; India regional data centre (2022)
Microsoft 365 tenants that want a flat per-user price with unlimited storage, Entra ID included, and the data held in India.
The catch: Microsoft 365 only — no Google Workspace, Salesforce or Dynamics; storage is Barracuda's, with no bring-your-own option.
per user / month Foundation list reported (premium support, prepaid) plus a backup-storage licence; Rubrik-hosted in Azure; Entra ID is the separate Identity Resilience product
Enterprises already on Rubrik Security Cloud that want Microsoft 365 under the same posture — anomaly detection, sensitive-data discovery and threat hunting on the tenant's data.
The catch: Backup storage is a separate licence on top of the per-user price; an India data region is not documented; Entra ID is a separate product.
per identity / year on quote; Entra ID, on-prem AD forest recovery and Okta objects with risk posture
Estates where a hijacked directory is the incident: Entra ID, AD and Okta objects backed up, compared, and restored object-by-object or as a forest.
The catch: Identity only; quote-only; an India data region is not documented.
per user / month or per TB of protected capacity (Cohesity documents ~6 GB per user on average); Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams and Groups; Cohesity-managed cloud or your own cluster
Cohesity estates that want Microsoft 365 in the same platform, with the option of capacity pricing instead of per user — which stops departed-user seats from costing anything.
The catch: Quote-only; an India BaaS region and Entra ID coverage are not documented; how immutability is enforced on the BaaS storage is not established from documentation — marked unknown.
per seat, quoted; each seat adds 100 GB to a fair-use pool shared across an MSP’s clients; retention up to 10 years; 14-day trial
MSPs backing up both Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace for clients, from the vendor that already runs their RMM and PSA.
The catch: One backup a day (up to three attempts), storage in the US, Canada and Europe with no India region, Teams chats export rather than restore — and ConnectWise also sells Cloud Backup (ex-SkyKick) for Microsoft 365, which adds Entra ID.
a year per seat, the same at renewal (Entra ID $10); Box and Dropbox include 10 TB per seat, then $5/TB a month; Microsoft 365 backups can be stored in India since May 2026; 7-day trial
Small and mid-sized teams backing up Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and Salesforce from one console at a published per-seat price.
The catch: Only Microsoft 365 has an India region (Google Workspace, Box and Dropbox do not); retention and immutability are not published; encryption is IDrive-managed, so the private-key option does not apply.
per licence through your MSP, with a fair-use storage allowance; also inside Kaseya 365 User (60 GB per user, minimum 50 licences); billed on a committed minimum since December 2025; Entra ID backup is a separate licence; Datto publishes no price
MSP clients on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace that want up to three backups a day and infinite retention, managed by the same MSP that runs their Datto backup.
The catch: No Asian storage region at all — backups sit in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Iceland or Australia; quote-only through an MSP; Entra ID and SaaS Defense are separate add-ons.
per user a month on a 1-year term ($0.85 on 3-year), minimum 10 users; the backup sits on storage you run — on-premises, a NAS or your own cloud bucket — so it can stay in India
Teams that want Microsoft 365 backup kept on their own storage — in their own data centre or cloud region — at a published per-user price.
The catch: You run and pay for the backup server and the storage; Microsoft 365 only, with no Entra ID, Google Workspace or Salesforce; NAKIVO hosts nothing, so there is no vendor-managed option.
per user a year for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace on Arcserve’s US e-store ($129.95 for 3 years), storage included; Entra ID is a separate $18 per user a year; Salesforce, Dynamics and the other apps are quoted; regions are Denmark, the US, the UK, Australia, Germany and Canada — none in India
Teams that want Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Dynamics 365 and dev tools such as Jira backed up by one hosted service, with immutable copies kept by the vendor.
The catch: No India region and no bring-your-own storage; the US store price is not sold in India; backup frequency is not published; it runs on Keepit infrastructure, per Arcserve’s docs.
per user on a single all-inclusive plan with unlimited retention, quoted (Spanning says 30% below rivals); the old $48 figure is not current; regions are the US, Canada, the EU, the UK, Australia and South Africa — none in India
Teams that need Salesforce data and metadata backed up beside Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, with self-service restores and sandbox seeding at no extra cost.
The catch: No India region; one daily automated backup plus on-demand runs; no Entra ID backup listed; the Microsoft 365 region choice is permanent.
quote-only, model published: Microsoft 365 files per 10 GB per service, Microsoft Complete and Google Workspace per user, monthly or annual with no minimums; unlimited retention on OpenText’s AWS S3 or your own storage; product pages list no India region, though a CloudAlly-era support note lists India — confirm
Teams backing up Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce with metadata, Box and Dropbox from one account, up to three times a day, with immutable copies kept without a time limit.
The catch: No published figures, Entra ID objects are not listed, and India is not among the storage countries on the product pages. OpenText classes its SMB and consumer security line, which includes this backup, as non-core and is divesting non-core units — ask about the roadmap.
per user a year on AWS Marketplace ($480 per 10 users for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or Salesforce; endpoints $960 per 10 users; hybrid workloads $30,000 per 10 TB), 1- to 5-year terms paid upfront; runs on Druva’s platform; hybrid workloads can be stored in AWS Mumbai or Azure Central India
Dell customers who want Druva’s SaaS backup bought, supported and billed through Dell, alongside PowerProtect on premises.
The catch: It is Druva’s platform sold by Dell, so compare it with buying Druva directly; the storage region for SaaS apps and endpoints is not listed — get it in writing; a 99.5% availability objective with no service credits described.
quoted and storage-based, with no upfront fee and retention included; Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams and OneNote plus Entra ID users, groups, roles and conditional-access policies, on the backup platform that came from Redstor
MSPs that already sell TitanHQ email security and want Microsoft 365 and Entra ID backup in the same console and bundle.
The catch: Microsoft 365 and Entra ID only, with no Google Workspace or Salesforce. Priced on storage rather than per user, and no India storage region is documented, so an Indian tenant’s backups may sit offshore.
Why each constraint rules out what it doesShow the reasoning ↓
Microsoft 365 beyond mailRules out Veeam Backup for Salesforce, Commvault Cloud Backup for Active Directory & Entra ID and Rubrik Identity Resilience (Entra ID · Active Directory · Okta) — does not back up Microsoft 365. That leaves Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Advanced · Premium), Commvault Cloud SaaS Backup (Microsoft 365 · Dynamics 365 · Salesforce), Druva SaaS Apps (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), AvePoint Cloud Backup, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud — Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace backup, Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Rubrik Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Business · Enterprise Edition), Cohesity DataProtect for Microsoft 365 (BaaS or on your cluster), Axcient x360Cloud, IDrive Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Datto SaaS Protection, NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365, Arcserve SaaS Backup, Spanning Backup (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), OpenText Cloudally Backup (formerly CloudAlly), Dell PowerProtect Backup Services (Druva-powered) and TitanHQ Microsoft 365 Backup (with Entra ID Backup).
Google WorkspaceRules out Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Advanced · Premium), Veeam Backup for Salesforce, Commvault Cloud SaaS Backup (Microsoft 365 · Dynamics 365 · Salesforce), Commvault Cloud Backup for Active Directory & Entra ID, Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Rubrik Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Business · Enterprise Edition), Rubrik Identity Resilience (Entra ID · Active Directory · Okta), Cohesity DataProtect for Microsoft 365 (BaaS or on your cluster), NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 and TitanHQ Microsoft 365 Backup (with Entra ID Backup) — does not back up Google Workspace. That leaves Druva SaaS Apps (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), AvePoint Cloud Backup, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud — Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace backup, Axcient x360Cloud, IDrive Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Datto SaaS Protection, Arcserve SaaS Backup, Spanning Backup (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), OpenText Cloudally Backup (formerly CloudAlly) and Dell PowerProtect Backup Services (Druva-powered).
Salesforce with metadataRules out Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Advanced · Premium), Commvault Cloud Backup for Active Directory & Entra ID, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud — Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace backup, Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Rubrik Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Business · Enterprise Edition), Rubrik Identity Resilience (Entra ID · Active Directory · Okta), Cohesity DataProtect for Microsoft 365 (BaaS or on your cluster), Axcient x360Cloud, Datto SaaS Protection, NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 and TitanHQ Microsoft 365 Backup (with Entra ID Backup) — does not back up Salesforce. That leaves Veeam Backup for Salesforce, Commvault Cloud SaaS Backup (Microsoft 365 · Dynamics 365 · Salesforce), Druva SaaS Apps (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), AvePoint Cloud Backup, IDrive Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Arcserve SaaS Backup, Spanning Backup (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), OpenText Cloudally Backup (formerly CloudAlly) and Dell PowerProtect Backup Services (Druva-powered).
Entra ID objectsRules out Veeam Backup for Salesforce, Commvault Cloud SaaS Backup (Microsoft 365 · Dynamics 365 · Salesforce), Rubrik Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Business · Enterprise Edition), Axcient x360Cloud, NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 and Spanning Backup (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce) — Entra ID objects not covered by this SKU. That leaves Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Advanced · Premium), Commvault Cloud Backup for Active Directory & Entra ID, Druva SaaS Apps (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), AvePoint Cloud Backup, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud — Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace backup, Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Rubrik Identity Resilience (Entra ID · Active Directory · Okta), Cohesity DataProtect for Microsoft 365 (BaaS or on your cluster), IDrive Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Datto SaaS Protection, Arcserve SaaS Backup, OpenText Cloudally Backup (formerly CloudAlly), Dell PowerProtect Backup Services (Druva-powered) and TitanHQ Microsoft 365 Backup (with Entra ID Backup). It flags Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud — Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace backup — Entra ID object backup not documented for this product, Cohesity DataProtect for Microsoft 365 (BaaS or on your cluster) — Entra ID object backup not documented for this product, OpenText Cloudally Backup (formerly CloudAlly) — Entra ID object backup not documented for this product and Dell PowerProtect Backup Services (Druva-powered) — Entra ID object backup not documented for this product — marked on the cards, not removed.
Dynamics 365Rules out Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Advanced · Premium), Veeam Backup for Salesforce, Commvault Cloud Backup for Active Directory & Entra ID, Druva SaaS Apps (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud — Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace backup, Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Rubrik Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Business · Enterprise Edition), Rubrik Identity Resilience (Entra ID · Active Directory · Okta), Cohesity DataProtect for Microsoft 365 (BaaS or on your cluster), Axcient x360Cloud, IDrive Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Datto SaaS Protection, NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365, Spanning Backup (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), OpenText Cloudally Backup (formerly CloudAlly), Dell PowerProtect Backup Services (Druva-powered) and TitanHQ Microsoft 365 Backup (with Entra ID Backup) — does not back up Dynamics 365. That leaves Commvault Cloud SaaS Backup (Microsoft 365 · Dynamics 365 · Salesforce), AvePoint Cloud Backup and Arcserve SaaS Backup.
Storage you ownRules out Druva SaaS Apps (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud — Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace backup, Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Rubrik Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Business · Enterprise Edition), Rubrik Identity Resilience (Entra ID · Active Directory · Okta), Axcient x360Cloud, IDrive Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Datto SaaS Protection, Arcserve SaaS Backup, Spanning Backup (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), Dell PowerProtect Backup Services (Druva-powered) and TitanHQ Microsoft 365 Backup (with Entra ID Backup) — vendor-held storage only, no bring-your-own option. That leaves Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Advanced · Premium), Veeam Backup for Salesforce, Commvault Cloud SaaS Backup (Microsoft 365 · Dynamics 365 · Salesforce), Commvault Cloud Backup for Active Directory & Entra ID, AvePoint Cloud Backup, Cohesity DataProtect for Microsoft 365 (BaaS or on your cluster), NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 and OpenText Cloudally Backup (formerly CloudAlly).
Storage in the seat priceRules out Veeam Backup for Salesforce, Rubrik Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Business · Enterprise Edition), Rubrik Identity Resilience (Entra ID · Active Directory · Okta), Cohesity DataProtect for Microsoft 365 (BaaS or on your cluster), NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 and TitanHQ Microsoft 365 Backup (with Entra ID Backup) — storage is licensed or metered apart from the per-user price. That leaves Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Advanced · Premium), Commvault Cloud SaaS Backup (Microsoft 365 · Dynamics 365 · Salesforce), Commvault Cloud Backup for Active Directory & Entra ID, Druva SaaS Apps (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), AvePoint Cloud Backup, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud — Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace backup, Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Axcient x360Cloud, IDrive Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Datto SaaS Protection, Arcserve SaaS Backup, Spanning Backup (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce), OpenText Cloudally Backup (formerly CloudAlly) and Dell PowerProtect Backup Services (Druva-powered). It flags Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud — Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace backup — Whether storage is inside the seat price is not documented and IDrive Cloud-to-Cloud Backup — Whether storage is inside the seat price is not documented — marked on the cards, not removed.
Backups in IndiaRules nothing out on published terms. It flags Veeam Backup for Salesforce — Your storage, AvePoint Cloud Backup — India data region not documented, Rubrik Microsoft 365 (Foundation · Business · Enterprise Edition) — India data region not documented, Rubrik Identity Resilience (Entra ID · Active Directory · Okta) — India data region not documented, Cohesity DataProtect for Microsoft 365 (BaaS or on your cluster) — India data region not documented, Axcient x360Cloud — India data region not documented, Datto SaaS Protection — India data region not documented, NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 — Your storage, Arcserve SaaS Backup — India data region not documented, Spanning Backup (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce) — India data region not documented, OpenText Cloudally Backup (formerly CloudAlly) — India data region not documented, Dell PowerProtect Backup Services (Druva-powered) — India data region not documented and TitanHQ Microsoft 365 Backup (with Entra ID Backup) — India data region not documented — marked on the cards, not removed.
Above 10,000 seatsRules nothing out on published terms. It flags Veeam Backup for Salesforce — Unverified above 10,000 seats, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud — Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace backup — Unverified above 10,000 seats, Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup — Unverified above 10,000 seats, Axcient x360Cloud — Unverified above 10,000 seats, IDrive Cloud-to-Cloud Backup — Unverified above 10,000 seats, Datto SaaS Protection — Unverified above 10,000 seats, NAKIVO Backup for Microsoft 365 — Unverified above 10,000 seats, Arcserve SaaS Backup — Unverified above 10,000 seats, Spanning Backup (Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Salesforce) — Unverified above 10,000 seats, OpenText Cloudally Backup (formerly CloudAlly) — Unverified above 10,000 seats, Dell PowerProtect Backup Services (Druva-powered) — Unverified above 10,000 seats and TitanHQ Microsoft 365 Backup (with Entra ID Backup) — Unverified above 10,000 seats — marked on the cards, not removed.
Dormant and departed usersEvery per-user product bills per protected user; what happens to a leaver whose mailbox you must keep for seven years is the question that doubles a bill. Cohesity's capacity option and AvePoint's and Barracuda's unlimited-storage models are documented answers from different directions; whether a product charges for an unlicensed, retained user is contract language at Veeam, Commvault, Druva, Acronis and Rubrik rather than a datasheet line — ask, in writing, before the price.
Teams private chats and the paid APITeams channel messages are in every product; private chats and meeting chats go through Microsoft's Teams Export APIs, which Microsoft meters. Whether a vendor includes that cost, passes it through or skips private chats is documented unevenly — confirm for the product you shortlist.
Restore granularityIn-place restore of a mailbox, item, site or channel is documented across the Microsoft 365 products here; export-only restore is the tell of a cheap product. For Salesforce, restoring metadata (fields, page layouts, workflows) is a different capability from restoring records — Veeam, Commvault, Druva and AvePoint document both.
Immutability, per productVendor-controlled immutable storage is documented for Veeam Data Cloud, Commvault (Air Gap Protect), Druva, Acronis Cloud (governance mode by default — compliance mode must be switched on), Barracuda and Rubrik's M365 service; Veeam Backup for Salesforce inherits whatever your storage enforces; AvePoint and Cohesity's BaaS are marked unknown because the mechanism is not established from documentation.
Under 50 seatsRules nothing out on documentation: Acronis, Barracuda, AvePoint, Veeam and Commvault all sell to small tenants; the floor is usually a minimum seat count or an annual minimum — [TechBag to confirm] for current minimums by product.
Eight situations, eight shortlists — with the platform named
Each shortlist names which platform the product covers at depth in that situation. If the directory is the worry, start from the second row.
Microsoft 365 only, 100–2,000 seats — the cheapest honest list
Why: Commvault publishes $1.70–4.50 per user per month with storage included and an India SaaS region; Barracuda lists $3.40 flat with unlimited storage, Entra ID and an India data centre; Veeam's Foundation lists $2.63–3.50 by volume from a Central India region.
The trade-off: Read which workloads the lowest tier includes — the cheapest line is often mail-only — and ask what a departed user costs.
Microsoft 365 and the directory — Entra ID must be restorable
Why: Barracuda includes Entra ID in the per-user price; Veeam's Advanced tier adds it (or $14.10 per user per year standalone); AvePoint covers it in the widest SaaS list; Commvault's Active Directory & Entra ID product restores objects and rebuilds a forest.
The trade-off: Directory backup restores objects, attributes, groups and policies — not passwords or sessions; the identity products (Rubrik, Commvault) go deeper than the M365 bundles.
Google Workspace, or Google and Microsoft together
Why: Druva, AvePoint and Acronis are the three here that document Google Workspace — Druva and AvePoint alongside Microsoft 365 in one console, Acronis through an MSP from a Mumbai data centre.
The trade-off: Google Vault is not backup (Google says so); these three are; Veeam, Commvault, Barracuda and Rubrik do not offer Google Workspace at all.
Salesforce — records and metadata, with sandbox seeding
Why: All four document metadata as well as records; Veeam keeps it in your own storage, Druva and AvePoint in theirs, Commvault at a published $3.60 per user per month.
The trade-off: Veeam means running a server; the SaaS three mean the backup lives outside your org's cloud — pick the control you want.
The backup must live in storage we own
Why: Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 (self-hosted), Commvault's bring-your-own storage, AvePoint's Azure/AWS storage option and Cohesity on your own cluster keep the copy under your control.
The trade-off: Your storage means your immutability configuration and your restore bandwidth; the vendor-storage products include both in the price.
Backups must stay in India
Why: Druva's AWS Mumbai region, Barracuda's India data centre, Commvault's India SaaS availability, Acronis's Mumbai data centre and Veeam's Central India region are all documented.
The trade-off: AvePoint, Rubrik and Cohesity's BaaS are flagged, not ruled out — ask for the region in writing.
MSP-run SMB on Microsoft 365 or Google
Why: Acronis and AvePoint are built for partner delivery; Barracuda's flat per-user price with unlimited storage is simple to resell and to budget.
The trade-off: Partner pricing hides the list — ask the MSP what the vendor charges them per seat, and what happens to the backup if you change MSP.
Enterprise — SaaS data under the same platform as the data centre
Why: Commvault, Rubrik, Cohesity and Druva each protect Microsoft 365 from the same console and posture as their data-centre products — one catalogue, one anomaly view.
The trade-off: Platform pricing is per user plus storage (Rubrik) or per capacity (Cohesity) — the per-user list tells you less than the total.
Four platforms, four problems — and the seat that keeps costing
“SaaS backup” is sold as one product and built as four. Place each product on the platform you actually need before comparing per-user prices.
Platform 1
Microsoft 365 beyond mail
Exchange is universal; Teams channels, private chats (Microsoft's metered Export API), SharePoint sites and OneDrive are where depth and price diverge. Every M365 product here documents the four; the API cost is the question.
Platform 2
Google Workspace
Gmail, Drive, shared drives, Calendar, Contacts — and Google's own statement that Vault is not backup. Three products here document it; none of Veeam, Commvault, Barracuda, Rubrik or Cohesity does.
Platform 3
Salesforce — records and metadata
Records are rows; metadata is the org — fields, layouts, flows, permissions. Restoring records into a broken org is not a restore. Four products document metadata; one (Veeam) keeps it in your own storage.
Platform 4
Entra ID and the directory
Users, groups, roles, conditional-access policies, app registrations — the blast radius of one compromised admin. Included (Barracuda, AvePoint, Veeam Advanced), or a dedicated identity product (Commvault, Rubrik); elsewhere absent or a sibling SKU.
The seat test
Ask these before the per-user price, in this order.
- —What does a departed user whose mailbox we must keep for seven years cost per month? The honest answers range from “nothing” (capacity or unlimited models) to “a full seat”.
- —Is storage inside the price, and is it unlimited? Included at Veeam Data Cloud, Commvault, Druva, AvePoint, Barracuda; a separate licence at Rubrik; capacity at Cohesity; per GB at Microsoft.
- —Are Teams private chats backed up, and who pays Microsoft’s Export API? Documented unevenly; ask by name.
- —Where is the copy, which region, and can we bring our own storage? Region in writing; bring-your-own at Veeam, Commvault, AvePoint, Cohesity.
Microsoft's own answer
Microsoft 365 Backup is real backup — and the comparison is honest.
- —What it is: Microsoft’s native service for Exchange, OneDrive and SharePoint at $0.15 per GB per month of protected content, restores free, fast because it never leaves the tenant. At ~6 GB per user (Cohesity’s documented average) that is about $10.8 ≈ ₹896 per user per year.
- —What it is not: a copy outside the tenant, Teams or Entra ID coverage (as of its documentation), Google, Salesforce, or a price that behaves for mail-heavy users — 50 GB mailboxes cost 50 GB.
- —The honest shape: Microsoft 365 Backup for speed inside the tenant; a third-party copy outside it for the day the tenant, or its admin, is the problem. Several vendors here (Veeam, Commvault, Rubrik, AvePoint, Cohesity) also resell Microsoft’s service through their consoles.
What changes at 100, 1,000 and 10,000 seats
SaaS backup scales by seat count and by data per seat — and the seat count includes the people who left. The bill follows the seat; the restore follows the API.
Inclusion is the constraint
- —Any product here covers the tenant; the question is what the per-user price includes — storage, Entra ID, Teams private chats — and the minimum seats or annual floor.
- —Flat unlimited models (Barracuda, AvePoint) are simplest to budget; published lists (Commvault, Veeam, Barracuda) are simplest to compare.
- —An MSP often holds the contract: ask what the vendor charges them per seat.
Put this in your PoC
Restore one mailbox and one SharePoint site in place, and one Teams channel. If the third needs an export, you have learned the product.
Leavers and the directory are the constraint
- —Retained leavers become a visible share of the bill — the seat-pricing contract line matters now; capacity pricing (Cohesity) starts to compete with per-user.
- —Entra ID restore stops being optional: one compromised admin can remove every conditional-access policy. Include it (Barracuda, Veeam Advanced, AvePoint) or buy the identity product (Commvault, Rubrik).
- —Restore throughput is API-throttled by Microsoft and Google; premium tiers (Veeam Premium) buy unthrottled restore.
Put this in your PoC
Ask for a documented restore rate (items per hour) for a tenant your size, and price the leaver seats for the retention term.
Throughput and platform are the constraint
- —Bulk restore after an incident is an API-throughput problem; vendors that resell Microsoft 365 Backup for speed inside the tenant plus their own copy outside it are the honest enterprise shape.
- —One platform for SaaS and the data centre (Commvault, Rubrik, Cohesity, Druva) gives one anomaly view and one catalogue — and one negotiation.
- —Per-user lists matter less than the total: storage licences (Rubrik), capacity (Cohesity), Export API pass-through, and the India region in writing.
Put this in your PoC
Run a 1,000-mailbox restore rehearsal. The hours it takes, and whether Microsoft throttled it, is the only number that matters.
Veeam, Commvault, Druva, AvePoint, Rubrik and Cohesity document very large tenants; Acronis and Barracuda are flagged unverified above 10,000 seats, not ruled out. Where a specific product strains for your tenant: [TechBag to confirm].
Leaving a SaaS backup product means leaving the history behind
The old product’s backups stay in its storage, in its format, readable only through it. Switching starts a new history from day one; the old history lives until its retention ends — if you keep paying.
The retained history
Seven years of mail and files in the old vendor's storage. Keep the contract (often at reduced seats) until the retention ends, or export what the regulator may ask for — exports are per mailbox and slow.
The first full backup
The new product's first pass through a large tenant is API-throttled by Microsoft and Google — days to weeks. Plan the gap.
The directory and the metadata
Entra ID objects and Salesforce metadata history start again; a restore to a point before the switch needs the old product alive.
Bring-your-own storage
If the copy was in your own storage (Veeam self-hosted, Commvault, AvePoint, Cohesity), the data stays yours — readable only through the product that wrote it.
Retention tail, seeding time and overlap cost for your tenant: [TechBag to confirm] — TechBag scopes it from your retention rules and seat count.
Per user per month — and the seat that left
What you may already hold, the products priced per user at three tenant sizes in USD and INR, and what the per-user line leaves out — starting with the storage and the leavers.
Do you already own one?
Four things already in the tenant that get called backup. One is.
- Microsoft 365 retention policies
- No Governance, not recovery. Retention keeps content from destruction until a date; it does not restore a purged mailbox, an encrypted site or last Tuesday’s tenant. Microsoft recommends third-party backup.
- Recycle bin and versioning
- No 30–93 days for a user’s own deletions. An admin purge, an expired window, a deleted account or an attacker versioning over the files ends it.
- Microsoft 365 Backup (the paid service)
- Partly Real backup at $0.15 per GB per month, restores free, inside the tenant — Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint. Not a copy outside the tenant, not Teams or Entra ID, not Google or Salesforce.
- Google Vault
- No An eDiscovery and retention tool. Google’s own FAQ answers “is Vault a backup?” with no.
If what is already in the tenant covers your failure modes, we say so. It costs us a sale and saves you one.
What the rest actually cost
Published and reported per-user prices (INR for scale), then worked at 100 / 1,000 / 10,000 seats per year. Storage and the directory add-on are stated apart, on purpose; where a product is quote-only the line says so.
- Commvault Cloud SaaS(published $1.70–4.50 / user / mo, storage included)$2,040–5,400 ≈₹1,69,320–₹4,48,200
- Veeam Data Cloud for M365(list $2.63–3.50 / user / mo Foundation, storage included)$3,156–4,200 ≈₹2,61,948–₹3,48,600
- Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud(list $3.40 / user / mo, unlimited storage, Entra ID)$4,080 ≈₹3,38,640
- AvePoint Cloud Backup(indicative $2–3.50 / user / mo, unlimited storage)$2,400–4,200 ≈₹1,99,200–₹3,48,600
- Druva SaaS Apps(reported ~$3 / user / mo)$3,600 ≈₹2,98,800
- Acronis M365 / Google(MSP-priced; quote)Quote
- Rubrik Microsoft 365(reported ~$3.80 / user / mo Foundation + storage licence)$4,560 ≈₹3,78,480
- Veeam Backup for SalesforceQuote
- Commvault AD & Entra IDQuote
- Rubrik Identity ResilienceQuote
- Cohesity M365(per user or per TB)Quote
- Commvault Cloud SaaS(published $1.70–4.50 / user / mo, storage included)$20,400–54,000 ≈₹16,93,200–₹44,82,000
- Veeam Data Cloud for M365(list $2.63–3.50 / user / mo Foundation, storage included)$31,560–42,000 ≈₹26,19,480–₹34,86,000
- Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud(list $3.40 / user / mo, unlimited storage, Entra ID)$40,800 ≈₹33,86,400
- AvePoint Cloud Backup(indicative $2–3.50 / user / mo, unlimited storage)$24,000–42,000 ≈₹19,92,000–₹34,86,000
- Druva SaaS Apps(reported ~$3 / user / mo)$36,000 ≈₹29,88,000
- Acronis M365 / Google(MSP-priced; quote)Quote
- Rubrik Microsoft 365(reported ~$3.80 / user / mo Foundation + storage licence)$45,600 ≈₹37,84,800
- Veeam Backup for SalesforceQuote
- Commvault AD & Entra IDQuote
- Rubrik Identity ResilienceQuote
- Cohesity M365(per user or per TB)Quote
- Commvault Cloud SaaS(published $1.70–4.50 / user / mo, storage included)$2,04,000–5,40,000 ≈₹1,69,32,000–₹4,48,20,000
- Veeam Data Cloud for M365(list $2.63–3.50 / user / mo Foundation, storage included)$3,15,600–4,20,000 ≈₹2,61,94,800–₹3,48,60,000
- Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud(list $3.40 / user / mo, unlimited storage, Entra ID)$4,08,000 ≈₹3,38,64,000
- AvePoint Cloud Backup(indicative $2–3.50 / user / mo, unlimited storage)$2,40,000–4,20,000 ≈₹1,99,20,000–₹3,48,60,000
- Druva SaaS Apps(reported ~$3 / user / mo)$3,60,000 ≈₹2,98,80,000
- Acronis M365 / Google(MSP-priced; quote)Quote
- Rubrik Microsoft 365(reported ~$3.80 / user / mo Foundation + storage licence)$4,56,000 ≈₹3,78,48,000
- Veeam Backup for SalesforceQuote
- Commvault AD & Entra IDQuote
- Rubrik Identity ResilienceQuote
- Cohesity M365(per user or per TB)Quote
Storage and the directory — stated apart from the seat price, on purpose
TechBag gives INR pricing, GST, PO cycle, minimums and tier-matched quotes. The INR above is conversion for scale at ≈₹83/$; the tier-matched INR quote is ours.
What isn’t in the licence price
Storage, where it is not included
Rubrik’s backup-storage licence, Cohesity’s capacity, Microsoft’s per GB — and the Export API Microsoft meters for Teams private chats, passed through or absorbed depending on the vendor. Ask for the total, not the seat.
The seats that left
Retained leavers on a strict per-user contract: by year seven of a seven-year retention rule at 10% attrition, 1.7× the live seat count. The contract line that decides the five-year bill.
Restore time, throttled
Microsoft and Google throttle restore APIs; a 1,000-mailbox restore is hours to days on standard tiers. Premium tiers and the in-tenant Microsoft 365 Backup buy speed. Your rehearsal figure: [TechBag to confirm].
What goes wrong
Documented behaviour and contract lines, cross-checked against TechBag engagements before any becomes a named case. Each is cheaper to read here than to discover at the point of loss.
Assuming native retention is backup
The retention policy was set; the mailbox was purged by an admin; the policy kept nothing because nothing existed. Retention is a governance control; backup is a recovery control.
Departed-user licences still being paid for
Seven-year retention on a per-user contract: the leavers accumulate until they outnumber the staff. Ask what a retained, unlicensed user costs before signing.
Teams and SharePoint coverage shallower than mail
Channels were backed up; private chats were not (Microsoft's Export API was never enabled); the SharePoint site's permissions came back wrong. Test the non-mail workloads first.
Restore that needs a support ticket
The console showed the backup; the restore was an export file and a ticket to the vendor. In-place, self-service restore is the product — rehearse it before the incident.
Salesforce metadata not covered, only records
Records were restored into an org whose fields, flows and layouts had been deleted with them. Metadata is the org; records are the rows.
Entra ID not in the backup
A compromised admin removed the conditional-access policies and the groups; the M365 backup had mail and files. Directory objects are a separate capability — and usually a separate SKU.
Google Vault mistaken for backup
Vault held the mail for compliance and restored nothing when the Drive was encrypted. Google says it is not backup; three products here are.
The region assumed, not documented
The contract said cloud; the data sat in a region the regulator did not accept. Druva, Barracuda, Commvault, Acronis and Veeam document India; ask the rest in writing.
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Three doors — pick by where you are
Vendor-neutral. No gated content.