AvePoint Cloud Backup vs. Native Microsoft 365
Backup & Restore Capabilities
Overview
AvePoint Online Services is a multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering from AvePoint, hosted on Microsoft’sAzure Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technology, and certified by ISO 27001:2013, FedRAMP, SOC 2 Type II, CSA, andIRAP. With a unified, browser-based user interface and a fully-distributed architecture, AvePoint Online Services
integrates AvePoint’s powerful data migration, management and protection technologies into a highly scalable solution
for Microsoft 365 applications including SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Project Online, Microsoft 365 Groups,Teams, OneDrive for Business, Planner, and Public Folders. No installation and minimal configuration makes getting tothe cloud a breeze!

Product Comparison
AvePoint Cloud Backup empowers organizations with automatic backups and granular, item-level restoration
capabilities according to organizational Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to satisfy data protection and retention
requirements.
Retention policies and backup are two separate concerns, often managed by separate teams. Retention policies aremanaged by Compliance, Legal, and Records team that directly relate to content and legal discovery. This is truly
designed to manage content “in place”. While this can cover against the single use case of accidental deletion (seepotential scenarios outlined below), it does not protect against all threats to document integrity. Backups are managed
by IT and are intended to have a point-in-time recovery of content, independently managed and owned by a customer,that can be brought in for a number of use cases!
With AvePoint Cloud Backup…
• Accident-proof SLAs
Meet stringent SLAs with automatic backups up to four times a day (or every 6 hours*), and get the flexibility tocustomize your SLAs for RPO and RTO, instead of relying on Microsoft’s default restoration and retention policy.
• Own your data
Maintain full access and control over your backup data, not just what’s in your Recycle Bins. Need to store backup files fora longer term (than the 15-30 days provided by Microsoft)? No problem! Compress and encrypt on the storage platformof your choice.
• Recover on your terms
You select what and where. Need access to a backup from more than two weeks ago? Need access to files during any
service disruption? Perform in-place or out-of-place restores for granular objects or content, without overwriting valuable
data since the last backup or having to go through Microsoft Support.

What kinds of scenarios are you covered by Microsoft 365 and Cloud Backup?

Scenarios

M365 E3

M365 E5

AvePoint Cloud Backup

Ransomware attack

YES
BUT… Within 30 days using
Files Restore.

YES
BUT… Within 30 days using
Files Restore.

YESMulti-year, point-in-time
recovery.

Microsoft 365 outageNONO

YES
AND… Can recover dataon-prem.

Broken permissions

NONOYESSecurity only restore torollback unintended or broken
permissions.

Corrupted files

YES
View and restore fromprevious versions.

YES
View and restore fromprevious versions.

YES
Recover content to a specificpoint in time using a simple
calendar based interface.

Staff turnover

YES
Utilize retention policies.

YES
Utilize retention policies.

YES
Protect and retain their data.

NOYES
AND… Choose default AvePoint
Azure storage or bring your own
storage (BYOS).

Hold your own dataNO

Why do I need Microsoft 365 backup? Learn more from the detailed features comparison.

Features

M365 E3

M365 E5

AvePoint Cloud
BackupAutomatic backup

YES
BUT… Backups areautomatically taken
every 12 hours.

YES
BUT… Backups areautomatically taken
every 12 hours.

YES
AND… Backups are automatic, as often as every 6hours, up to 4X per day.

Site collection

YES
BUT… Need to contact
Microsoft with unknown
RTO.

YES
BUT… Need to contact
Microsoft with unknown
RTO.

YES
AND… Restore the lost
content from Cloud Backup
directly and speedily.

SiteYESYES

YES

Restoregranularity

YES

List/Library
FolderItem/Document

LIMITED SUPPORTFrom Recycle Bins only.

LIMITED SUPPORTFrom Recycle Bins only.

YESYESM365 E3

M365 E5

AvePoint Cloud
BackupDocument
Version

LIMITED SUPPORTAll versions will be
automatically included if
restoring the documentfrom the recycle bin.

LIMITED SUPPORTAll versions will be
automatically included if
restoring the documentfrom the recycle bin.

YES
AND… Support restoring
only the latest version forthe best performance.

Mailbox

YES

YES

YES

User Calendar

YES

YES

YES

Teams Channel

YES
BUT… Users can only
restore channels thatwere deleted within up to30 days. After 30 days, adeleted channel and its
content are permanently
deleted and no longer
recoverable.

YES
BUT… Users can only
restore channels thatwere deleted within up
to 30 days. After 30 days,a deleted channel and its
content are permanently
deleted and no longer
recoverable.

YES

Teams Conversations/chats

YES
BUT… Conversations andchats will be permantly
deleted after 1-7 days
that the retention periodexpired.

YES
BUT… Conversations andchats will be permantly
deleted after 1-7 days
that the retention periodexpired.

YESNO
Customers have noaccess to their ownbackup data.

NOCustomers have noaccess to their own
backup data.

YES
AND… AvePoint Cloud
Backup supports dataencryption and compression on numerous storage
platforms.

LIMITED SUPPORTMicrosoft manages
backups of Microsoft 365
databases and content.
All content and configurations are backed up.
However, users can only
restore entire site collections or individual lists/
libraries from the recyclebin, overwriting data since
the last backup.

LIMITED SUPPORTMicrosoft manages
backups of Microsoft 365
databases and content.
All content and configurations are backed up.
However, users can onlyrestore entire site collections or individual lists/
libraries from the recyclebin, overwriting data
since the last backup.

YESFeatures

Microsoft Azure
Supportedstorage
locations forbackup data

Amazon S3
Dropbox
FTP
SFTP

Preserve workflow definitions

M365 E3

M365 E5

AvePoint Cloud
BackupTime-based restore– Restore any
object based on
specified backup
time

LIMITED SUPPORTBackups are performed
every 12 hours andretained in recycle binsfor 30 days for someExchange items, and up
to 93 days for SP andOD items. Specific items,files, lists, or libraries canbe restored directly fromthe SharePoint Online
recycle bin.

LIMITED SUPPORTBackups are performed
every 12 hours andretained in recycle binsfor 30 days for someExchange items, and up
to 93 days for SP andOD items. Specific items,
files, lists, or libraries canbe restored directly fromthe SharePoint Online
recycle bin.

YES

Object-based
restore – Directly
locate the objects
you want to restore
by utilizing full-text
search capabilityNONO

YES

In-place restore

YESYESYES

Out-of-placerestore

NOFor Microsoft-maintained
backup data, out of place
restore is not permitted.

NOFor Microsoft-maintained
backup data, out of place
restore is not permitted.

YES

Restore to storage
locationNONO

YES
AND… Export without Microsoft 365 being activated.

Merge

NONO

YESNONO

YES

YES

YES

YESSkipNONO

YESOverwrite

NONO

YES

Overwrite by lastmodified time

NONO

YES

Append an item/
document named
“_1”

YES

YES

YES

Features

Restoremethods

Restoretypes

Container level
Replaceconflict resolution when
Append container
restoringlevel content
named “_1”Content level
conflict resolution whenrestoringM365 E3

M365 E5

AvePoint Cloud
BackupSkipNONO

YESOverwrite

YES

YES

YES

Restore allversions

YESYES

YES

Restore a specified number oflatest versions

NONO

YESFeatures
Conflict
Resolutionfor App
DataVersionrestore

Granular restore of security(user/group permission)

YES

Granular restore of item/object
properties

YESNO

NO

Granular restore of views

YES

Granular restore of workflow
definition and item history

YES

Data encryption

YES

YES
AND… AvePoint provides
unique keys for each client
by default, ensuring data
can’t be decrypted without
their prior authorization.

YES

Unlimited retention for backup
dataNONOYES
AND… AvePoint provides
long-term retention
policies out-of-the-box andsupports defining custom
retention terms for backupdata.

End user restore

YES
BUT… From Recycle
Bins only, items will be
retained for 30 days for
Exchange and up to 93
days for SharePoint andOneDrive.

YES
BUT… From Recycle
Bins only, items will be
retained for 30 days for
Exchange and up to 93
days for SharePoint andOneDrive.

YES
AND… AvePoint allows
users to find and restore
lost content via Teams chatbot easily.

AvePoint Global Headquarters
525 Washington Blvd, Ste 1400 | Jersey City, NJ 07310 | 201.793.1111 | Sales@AvePoint.com© AvePoint, Inc. All rights reserved. AvePoint and the AvePoint logo are trademarks of AvePoint, Inc. All other marks are trademarks of their respective
owners. Accessible content available upon request.