In this article

Introduction
Why backup SaaS apps?
Understanding Backup as a Service (BaaS)
How BaaS solves SMB Challenges
Defining Your Data Protection Strategy
Criteria for Choosing a SaaS Backup Solution
Tips for Evaluating a SaaS Backup Solution
Why Choose SysCloud?

SaaS Backup Buying Guide

18 Dec 2024

8 mins read

Monikha

Blog Articles

Introduction

Your organization likely uses multiple Software as a Service (SaaS) applications—such as Microsoft 365 or Salesforce—to keep your operations productive and efficient. While these apps help streamline workflows and reduce operational overhead, one critical aspect is often overlooked: the security and recoverability of your data. Most SaaS providers operate under a shared responsibility model. That means while they ensure their infrastructure is reliable, it’s up to you to protect your data against human errors, accidental deletions, and malicious attacks.

Microsoft Service Agreement section 6(b) states - "We strive to keep the Services up and running; however, all online services suffer occasional disruptions and outages and Microsoft is not liable for any disruption or loss you may suffer as a result. In the event of an outage, you may not be able to retrieve Your Content or Data that you’ve stored. We recommend that you regularly backup Your Content and Data that you store on the Services or store using Third-Party Apps and Services."

Salesforce suggests "It is important for Salesforce customers to develop a routine data backup strategy as part of their overall data management and security model."

And, to truly safeguard your information, simply relying on the basic recovery features that come with these applications isn’t enough—you need a more comprehensive approach to SaaS data protection.

Why do we need to backup SaaS apps?

While SaaS platforms like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace provide basic data recovery options (e.g., recycle bins, version histories, or built-in retention tools), these native solutions often fall short of delivering the comprehensive, automated, and uniform data protection that businesses require. Their limited retention periods, complex and varied retention policies, lack of uniform protection across multiple applications, and inadequate safeguards against ransomware leave critical gaps. Additionally, relying solely on built-in features often incurs hidden costs, as archived data consumes subscription-based storage and may force businesses into more expensive plans.

Here’s a closer look at the gaps and limitations in native data protection and retention across critical SaaS applications:

• 12 Reasons Why You Need Google Workspace Backup

• 10 Critical Reasons to Backup Microsoft 365 Data

• 10 Reasons Why You Need a Salesforce Backup

• 6 Reasons Why You Should Backup QuickBooks Online

• 8 Reasons Why You Should Backup Xero

• 10 Reasons Why you should Backup Shopify Data

• 7 Reasons Why You Should Back up Slack

This is why your businesses need a third-party solution to overcome the complexities of SaaS data protection. And that's where Backup as a Service (BaaS) comes into picture.

What is Backup as a Service (BaaS)?

According to Gartner, “Backup as a Service (BaaS) providers deliver data protection as a service by hosting the backup software and the primary backup repository in privately operated or public cloud data centers. The backup infrastructure, including backup software and backup servers and storage, is managed by the BaaS provider. Customers are still responsible for implementing backup policies and performing recovery tasks, but they are not responsible for the day-to-day maintenance and operation of the backup system."

In simpler terms, BaaS is a cloud-based solution that stores and manages your backups for you. Instead of spending time and money setting up your own servers, software, and storage, a BaaS provider hosts the entire environment. You remain responsible for what data gets backed up and how it’s recovered, but you aren’t bogged down by daily monitoring and maintenance tasks.

For example, if you’re using Microsoft 365 or Salesforce, a BaaS solution continuously backs up your data to the cloud. If something goes wrong—whether it’s an accidental deletion, or a ransomware attack—you can quickly restore the information you need.

Beyond core backup and recovery, Gartner advocates a holistic approach to data protection by highlighting other critical capabilities that a BaaS must offer:

Disaster Recovery: Enables rapid restoration of data after unexpected disruptions.
Archiving: Store data securely for the long term to meet compliance needs and make it easy to access when required.
Ransomware Recovery: Identify ransomware threats in backed-up data and enable recovery to a clean, point-in-time version to avoid data encryption.
Search & Compliance: Allow fast, accurate searches to find specific data and ensure it meets legal, audit, and regulatory requirements.
Copy Data Management: Reduce unnecessary storage by managing multiple copies of data efficiently.
Data Migration: Move data smoothly between systems, clouds, or platforms without interrupting operations.
Analytics: Use backed-up data to uncover critical insights and unusual data behavior like bulk deletion to improve data management.

How BaaS solves SMB Challenges

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often rely heavily on SaaS applications like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or Salesforce for their operations. Unlike enterprises with complex IT infrastructures or virtual machines (VMs), SMB environments are simpler, typically consisting of SaaS tools, a few servers, and endpoint devices. Despite this simplicity, SMBs face significant challenges in ensuring data protection and regulatory compliance that BaaS solves:

1. Tailored for SaaS-Centric Environments

Many SMBs mistakenly assume their SaaS providers fully protect their data. In reality, SaaS platforms operate under a shared responsibility model, meaning data loss caused by accidental deletion, malware, or compliance violations is not covered. BaaS solutions step in to fill this gap by providing:

Dedicated backup and recovery for SaaS applications.
Tools to ensure data is protected, searchable, and compliant with regulations.

For example, critical tools like Microsoft 365, Salesforce, or HubSpot can be backed up regularly and restored quickly in case of data loss or ransomware attacks.

2. No IT Overhead

SMBs often lack the resources or expertise to manage complex IT systems. A BaaS solution simplifies data protection with:

Automated backups that don’t require manual intervention.
User-friendly dashboards for monitoring and managing backups.
Minimal maintenance, reducing reliance on dedicated IT teams.

This allows SMBs to focus on growing their business instead of worrying about backup complexities.

3. Scalability to Support Growth

As SMBs grow, their data volumes expand. A BaaS solution offers:

Scalable storage that grows with the business.
Flexibility to add new users, SaaS applications, or endpoints without major investments.

In addition, it has scale to meet evolving data protection and compliance needs as operations become more sophisticated and business comes under strict regulatory and audit needs such as:

Ransomware Scanning to protect data integrity and ensure secure, clean recovery.
Compliance Monitoring to identify and resolve regulatory gaps before they escalate.
Anomaly Detection to proactively monitor risk signals and mitigate data loss.
eDiscovery search and snapshot comparison to simplify legal data retrieval, audits, and ensure regulatory readiness.
Archiver with custom policies to automate data retention and storage cost optimization in the cloud.

These capabilities ensures that businesses can adapt to increasing data complexities without overcommitting to expensive on-premises hardware and a plethora of tools.

4. Cost-Effectiveness

Finally, BaaS solutions are designed to fit SMB budgets. By shifting to a cloud-based model:

SMBs avoid large upfront costs for servers and backup hardware.
Predictable subscription-based pricing helps manage expenses.
Costs are tied to actual usage, ensuring SMBs pay only for what they need.

Defining Your Data Protection Strategy

Before diving into your search for the right backup solutions, take time to understand your data landscape and requirements. By mapping out what you need to protect, how, and how long, you’ll be better equipped to evaluate potential tools. Consider the following to determine your backup requirement:

Map Your SaaS Ecosystem
List all the SaaS applications your business relies on (e.g., Microsoft 365 for documents, Salesforce for customer data, or Box for file storage). Knowing exactly where your data resides ensures nothing gets overlooked.
Understand How Your SaaS Tools Integrate
Consider how these applications connect or share information. For instance, you may store files in Microsoft 365, and then employees also save copies of these files to Box where they may add additional comments. Mapping out these relationships helps you pinpoint where data might be duplicated, missed, or at higher risk of errors, for a comprehensive protection.
Understand Compliance Obligations
If you’re subject to industry regulations (e.g., HIPAA in healthcare or FINRA in finance), determine what data must be stored, for how long, and in what format. This knowledge helps you choose a solution that supports the necessary retention, privacy, and reporting standards.
Set Clear Retention Goals
Decide how long you need to keep each type of data. Not everything needs to be stored forever—tailor your policies to balance compliance and cost. For instance, an e-commerce company might keep product order histories for five years but only retain marketing emails for six months.
Define Your Restoration Goals
When problems strike—such as a system crash or a ransomware attack—you should know two key targets:
Recovery Time Objective (RTO): How quickly must you restore access to your systems and data? For example, do you need everything back within an hour, or can you wait until the next morning?
Recovery Point Objective (RPO): How much recent data can you afford to lose? For instance, is it acceptable to lose a few hours of work, or do you need to recover every single transaction up to the very last minute?

By clearly defining these goals, you can choose a backup solution designed to meet your timelines and data retention needs, ensuring minimal disruption and maximum peace of mind.

Key Criteria for Choosing a SaaS Backup Solution

Choosing the right solution involves evaluating multiple factors. Below is a categorized list of essential criteria:

Core Backup Capabilities

Comprehensive Coverage:
Does the solution back up all critical SaaS applications used by your organization?
This eliminates the need for multiple backup solutions, reducing operational overhead and ensuring streamlined data management across the board.
Automated Backup Scheduling:
Does the solution automatically backup your data every day?
Regular, automated backups ensure continuous data protection without requiring manual intervention, saving time and resources.
Frequency of Backup:
How often does the solution back up your data?
Solutions offering daily backups with on-demand options (manually trigger backup whenever needed) enables low Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and minimizes the risk of losing recently created or updated data.
Incremental Backups:
Does the solution back up only the changes made since the last backup?
This optimizes storage usage, and ensures faster backup operations.

Core Retention Capabilities

Customizable Retention Policies
Can the solution allow different retention periods for various data sets?
You should have the flexibility to retain critical documents for longer periods to compliance requirements while archiving less essential data for only shorter periods to optimize storage costs.
Unlimited Retention
Does the solution provide the option for unlimited data retention?
Unlimited retention period allows you to preserve historical data indefinitely, supporting legal holds, compliance audits, or long-term operational needs.
Unlimited Versioning
Does the solution retain all backup snapshots of your data?
A solution with unlimited backup snapshots ensures that every version of your files is preserved, allowing you to recover previous versions in case of data loss, or for legal audits.

Core Recovery Capabilities

Granular Recovery Options
Can you recover specific files, emails, or records without restoring entire backups?
Granular recovery saves time and minimizes disruption by allowing you to pinpoint and restore only the data you need instead of performing a complete recovery.
Point-in-Time Recovery
Does the solution enable restoration of data from specific moments?
Point-in-time recovery lets you restore your system to an exact state before an incident, such as accidental deletions or data corruption, ensuring operational continuity with minimal downtime.
Flexible Restore Options
Does the solution allow restoring with overwrite or to alternate locations?
Flexible restore ensures you can overwrite existing files with a previous version or restore a specific version to a different location without disrupting current data.
Recovery Time Objective
Does the solution ensure quick recovery times during disruptions?
Low RTOs ensure your business can resume operations swiftly, reducing the impact of disruptions.
Self-Service Recovery Portal
Can end-users recover their own data?
Self-service recovery reduces IT workload by empowering users to restore their data quickly and independently.

Advanced Data Protection Features

Ransomware Detection
Does the solution detect and prevent ransomware attacks?
Early detection of ransomware prevents malicious files from corrupting backups, ensuring data integrity and providing a clean recovery point for seamless restoration.
Compliance Monitoring
Does the solution automatically check for compliance gaps?
Automated compliance checks ensure your backups meet legal and regulatory standards, helping avoid fines and safeguarding your organization's reputation.
Anomaly Detection
Can the solution identify unusual activity in your backups?
Anomaly detection flags irregular patterns, such as sudden data spikes or unexpected deletions, allowing proactive investigation and protection against potential threats.

Security and Compliance Features

End-to-End Encryption
Is data encrypted both during transfer and at rest?
Encryption ensures your data is secure from unauthorized access, protecting sensitive information throughout the backup lifecycle and meeting compliance requirements.
Immutable Backups
Are backup copies unchangeable to prevent tampering?
Immutable backups protect against unauthorized changes or deletions, providing a secure and reliable recovery option in case of cyberattacks or accidental errors.
Data Storage Location
Does the solution provide flexibility in choosing data storage locations?
Regional Compliance: Ensures data is stored in specific geographic regions to comply with regulations like GDPR or HIPAA. For example, storing EU data within the EU region avoids legal penalties.
Data Sovereignty: Allows businesses to meet local data residency requirements by storing data in-country, ensuring adherence to national laws.
Disaster Recovery: Offers the ability to store backups across multiple locations, reducing the risk of data loss due to regional disasters.

Advanced eDiscovery search

Can you quickly locate specific data using keywords and metadata filters?

eDiscovery search integrated with your backup allows you to identify data with specific keywords or metadata across multiple SaaS apps, and access any historical version, all in one place—streamlining legal preparation and regulatory compliance.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Can you restrict data access based on user roles?

RBAC enhances security by ensuring only authorized personnel can access, modify, or recover specific backups and manage settings. For example, you can restrict a marketing team member to access only CRM backups, reducing the risk of accidental or unauthorized actions while maintaining operational integrity.

Audit Trails and Reports

Does the solution maintain detailed logs of all backup activities?

Transparent logs help track changes, identify anomalies, and simplify compliance audits, ensuring accountability and operational integrity.

Industry Certifications

Does the solution comply with industry standards like ISO 27001, SOC 2, and GDPR?

Certifications demonstrate the solution’s commitment to security and compliance. For example:

ISO 27001 ensures robust information security practices, giving you confidence in the protection of your data.

SOC 2 compliance validates strong controls for safeguarding sensitive information, building trust with customers.

GDPR compliance ensures adherence to data privacy regulations, avoiding fines and meeting legal requirements.