How Acronis Fills in the Backup Gaps

The world of modern work is not what it used to be: remote collaboration is on the rise, most businesses are becoming cloud native and cyber threats are evolving before our very eyes. With that being said, the question is no longer “Should we back up Microsoft 365?”  but rather, “Is Microsoft’s native backup enough?” (The short answer is no.)

Depending solely on Microsoft 365’s built-in backup is a risk no business can afford. Yet I’ve seen so many SMBs do just that. At first, the default recycle bin and versioning look “good enough.” But when files are accidentally deleted, ransomware strikes, or compliance auditors come knocking, that illusion shatters. What follows is wasted time, lost productivity, and sometimes, data that’s gone for good.

As someone who has helped many businesses navigate these exact scenarios, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that you need more than a basic safety net. That’s why I’m such a strong advocate for Acronis Cyber Protect.

In this article, I’ll show you how Acronis doesn’t just fill the backup gaps, it transforms the way you protect, recover, and secure your data. Because when it comes to your business, “good enough” backup simply isn’t good enough.

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What This Blog Covers:

• Why Microsoft 365 Alone Isn’t a Backup Strategy
• What Sets Acronis Apart
• Recover What You Need, When You Need It
• Built-In Protection Against Modern Threats
• Unified Control Across Your Entire Backup Estate
• Built for Business – Backed by People

Why Microsoft 365 Alone Isn’t a Backup Strategy

Contrary to popular belief, Microsoft 365, on its own, is not a backup solution. This is one of the first things I always explain to clients because it’s all too easy to believe that it provides a comprehensive backup strategy. But it doesn’t. To put it plainly, it’s fairly basic: the recycle bins, manual file recovery, and short-term retention windows (which are often just 90 days) aren’t designed for true resilience.

Check out this blog for a deeper dive into why dedicated cyber security backup is essential — even when you're using Microsoft 365.

Moreover, these features are short-term and user-initiated. In other words, if someone deletes a file and doesn’t notice in time, it's gone forever. So, you need to know you lost it before you go looking for it. It also doesn’t cover accidental deletion, internal threats, or ransomware in any meaningful way. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an excellent solution, but backup isn’t its forte.

What Sets Acronis Apart

This is why we are major advocates for one of our valued partners, Acronis: they’ve got backup down to a science. Their cyber protection solution is purpose-built for Microsoft 365. This means it’s designed to protect everything: Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, and Teams — all in one intelligent ecosystem.

We're talking about:

• Agentless, cloud-to-cloud backup: No extra hardware, no manual installs.
• Granular recovery: Need a single email from six months ago? No problem. Search by sender, subject, recipient, or even team channel.
• Compliance-grade retention: From FCA to GDPR, compliance-driven retention is non-negotiable. Depending on your regulatory framework, you can store data for up to 3, 5, or even 7 years — whatever your business needs. To be clear, you cannot physically delete any data before the retention period is met, even by accident.

What I appreciate most about the retention feature is that even if you delete something by mistake (which tends to happen quite often), it’s still there, waiting to be restored – again, provided that the retention period hasn’t expired.

Recover What You Need, When You Need It

Now, we can’t talk about an inclusive backup solution without mentioning disaster recovery. Data loss – whether a file has been accidentally deleted or stolen – ultimately leads to downtime, which, of course, is every business’s nightmare.

The bottom line is that when something goes wrong, you want to get back online without missing a beat. That’s where RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) come in. I won’t bore you with too much jargon, but here’s what you need to know:

• RTO = how quickly you can get back up and running
• RPO = how much data you can afford to lose

Why are these acronyms important when considering backup solutions? Well, when it comes to minimising downtime, with Acronis, your RTOs and RPOs are dramatically reduced. You can instantly restore entire virtual machines (like Windows or Linux servers), Teams channels — you name it.

Whether you’re restoring a single email or a full SharePoint site, Acronis makes recovery fast, precise, and scalable. While the system restores in the background, your team gets back to work immediately.

Built-In Protection Against Modern Threats

A solid backup solution is not just about keeping your business running, but keeping your data safe. Cyber security isn’t an afterthought: it’s at the core of Acronis' architecture. As I always say, cyber threats don’t care how big your business is, and they are the one element nobody can escape. Whether it's ransomware or a rogue employee, the result is the same: lost data, lost trust, and serious downtime.

That’s why Acronis defends backup data against both ransomware and malicious insiders with:

• WORM (Write Once, Read Many) storage, which makes backups immutable. This means backups can’t be altered — even by a ransomware attack or malicious insider.
• Similarly, Governance Mode ensures data access doesn’t equal data tampering.
• Multi-factor authentication (good old MFA) prevents unauthorised access.
• AES-256 encryption protects your data at rest, no matter where it lives.

Even if someone manages to get in, the backup is already duplicated and locked down based on retention policies.

Unified Control Across Your Entire Backup Estate

This is usually the part that always gets a nod of approval from our more technical customers: having a single, unified management console. This is a real game-changer, simply because managing multiple environments can be quite brutal, especially for small IT teams.

My advice is to view it from the top down. This single interface gives you visibility into every backup across multi-tenant environments – whether it's in Microsoft, AWS, or an on-prem server. You can see exactly what’s being backed up, when, and where it’s stored.

As powerful as this console is, it’s built for simplicity and is as user-friendly as it gets. It also has an automatic onboarding feature, which means new users and groups are picked up automatically, without any manual setup needed.

Built for Business – Backed by People

More than a backup solution, Acronis Cyber Protect is also a comprehensive, compliant, and cyber-secure strategy for safeguarding your business-critical data. With this solution, you can be certain that your data is protected, recoverable, and secure — without having to second-guess whether you’ve covered every gap.

Solely relying on Microsoft 365’s default protections is like leaving your office door unlocked overnight. Accidental deletions and evolving cyber attacks are everyday risks that need to be proactively mitigated.

As someone who works every day to help businesses like yours secure what matters most, you can rest assured knowing that you don’t have to tackle this alone. This isn’t just about tools, it’s about trust. At Babble, our approach is collaborative: we don’t just deploy technology. Whether it’s guiding you through setup, training your administrators, or being your backup when disaster strikes, we’re with you every step of the way.

If you’re ready to stop worrying about what could go wrong or don’t feel comfortable going on this journey alone, that’s why we’re here. Reach out to the Babble team today to see how Acronis can fit your business, your compliance requirements, and your budget.