Popular cloud backup IDrive has announced the launch of unlimited cloud-to-cloud backup for users Microsoft 365 (opens in new tab) (formerly known as Office 365) and Google Workspace (opens in new tab). Privately held IDrive offers the service either as a standalone or as an add-on to its business plans for $20 per year per seat. This is available directly from IDrive (no managed service provider involved) and there is no discount for subscription length or number of users per account.
The Microsoft 365 backup service includes automated backups (up to three times per day), retention, granular recovery, and enterprise-wide search and recovery while backing up data from Google Workspace Google Drive, gmail, Google calendar And Google Contacts.
A spokesperson for IDrive told us that “Users also have comprehensive control over their backups from a centralized web console, helping them to migrate, export, download and perform cross-user restores with ease.”
Do not back up at your own risk
Contrary to popular belief, Microsoft is not responsible for anything other than hardware failures and natural disasters and short-term protection against user and administrator errors (e.g. soft delete). Everything else (accidental deletion, malicious insider, departing employee, malware) is up to the user.
Microsoft recommends a third party in the “Service Availability” section of its general services agreement, which states: “We recommend that you regularly back up your content and data that you store on the Services or store with third-party apps and services.”
And as IDrive reminds us, Google’s built-in archiving feature, G-Vault only backs up Gmail and Google Drive content. The popularity of cloud-based office apps is fueled by their adoption by small and medium-sized businesses, which in turn has attracted hackers, cybercriminals, and ransomware dealers.
A number of service providers currently offer online backup solutions that compete directly with IDrive or as managed backup and disaster recovery MSPs. Few offer a clear, transparent pricing structure (Veeam, Backupify, Rubrik, AvePoint, carbonite, ManageEngine). BDR Cloud and CloudAlly are more expensive, with Nakivo being the only one that can compete with IDrive on price.
