Item: CodeTwo Backup
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with CodeTwo Backup for Office 365

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use CodeTwo Backup for Office 365 as an organization wide compliment to the built in Backup/restore functionality that comes with Office 365. The most important benefit for us is a much easier interface in restoring files vs. using the default MS offering. It is much more intune with looking like a Backup Exec type product and removes the unneeded requirement of having to use Powershell for what should be more simple operations.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Takes the unneeded extra technical knowhow out of restoring for lower level IT employees.
Like other CodeTwo products, it is very easy to setup and confirm it is working.
Allows the ability to restore mail from one users folder to another. A great feature most products like this do not have.
Licensing and pricing is very friendly for cost strapped businesses.
Has throttling capability to avoid throwing a red flag with your tenant's settings.

Cons

The reporting is very simplistic and not up to par with how good the rest of the product is.
As far as I know, there is no cloud/SaaS option so you must designate a local workstation or machine to host it.
Archive mailboxes cannot be backed up. That is actually a fairly large issue.
Support online is a bit lacking since it is not used by a larger userbase at this point.

Most Important Features

Brick level/single email, OneDrive or SharePoint file restores.
A very easy to use GUI which simplifies the day day use of restore procedures.
Ability to PST users mailboxes.
Scheduling/automation of backup jobs.

Return on Investment

It allows us the ability to maintain some lower level IT employees and lower the load on level 3 support...lessening our overhead salaries.
The ease to use interfaces speeds up the ability to restore data which in turn gives our users a heads up on doing what they need to do without having to wait for fixes/restores.
The cost of a lost file(s) is almost immeasurable. Having this extra layer of protection is such a benefit, we often mention it to our customers as a benefit of working with us.

Alternatives Considered

Veeam Backup & Replication

Although Veeam's offerings are somewhat similar in trying to add additional layers of protection, on the Microsoft's default offerings, the CodeTwo product was more situated to do what we wanted which was brick level back up and restores of single files and emails. Veeams offering is more backend server/virtual machine savvy.

Key Insights

Do you think CodeTwo Backup delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with CodeTwo Backup's feature set?

Yes

Did CodeTwo Backup live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of CodeTwo Backup go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy CodeTwo Backup again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Veeam Backup & Replication, Acumatica, Hyper-V, Windows Server Failover Clustering, Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)

Likelihood to Recommend

CodeTwo Backup for Office 365 is the rare type of software that works for both SMB's and larger businesses. The built in backup and restore features of Office 365 are too rudimentary and PowerShell based to allow lower level IT people the ability to use them. CodeTwo opens the door to allowing day to day helpdesk employees the ability to assist customers with restore needs. As with anything Office 365, there is a limit on how well is works with the system and CodeTwo does not backup Archive mailboxes so if your organization is one that uses them extensively, you should go into the deal realizing that archive restores would still need to use the built in MS offerings.

Comments

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CodeTwo Backup for Office 365 is well worth it...both for your companies data and your job's survivability.