Understanding Email Protection: Backup vs. Archiving for MSPs

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are essential guides for businesses navigating today's complex tech landscape.? One area confusing is email protection, particularly for small and medium businesses (SMBs).

While large enterprises often have robust solutions, SMBs frequently neglect email backup and archiving due to perceived cost or complexity. However, advancements in cloud technology make these solutions affordable and effective for all business sizes.? This article explores the key differences between email backup and archiving to empower MSPs to offer comprehensive email protection to their clients.

What is Email Backup?

Email backup solutions prioritize business continuity and disaster recovery. They copy and store email data on redundant (often cloud-based) infrastructure for emergencies. This protects against data loss from accidental deletion, cyberattacks, or malicious insiders.? Since cloud providers like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace focus on infrastructure security, the onus of data backup falls on the customer or their MSP.

Email backup allows rapid recovery of entire email systems, individual mailboxes, or specific emails, minimizing downtime and ensuring business continuity.? Backup services often include additional features like real-time chat backups and cloud-hosted file protection.

What is Email Archiving?

Email archiving focuses on long-term data governance and legal compliance. It stores all email communications for extended periods (based on retention policies) with easy search and retrieval capabilities. This is crucial for eDiscovery, investigations, and legal matters.? Unlike backups focused on recovery, archiving prioritizes searchability and data management.

Key Differences Between Email Archiving and Backup

1. Capture Method: Email archiving captures all emails (sent and received) continuously using journaling. Backups may have scheduled intervals, potentially missing emails deleted before the backup.
2. Management Benefits: Archiving simplifies managing email systems by offloading emails from production servers, improving performance and eliminating mailbox quota issues.
3. Compliance and Security: Email archives are tamper-proof, ensuring a reliable record for investigations, audits, or legal requirements. Backups, while searchable, aren't designed for complex investigations.
4. Search Functionality: Archiving solutions offer robust search features to locate specific emails quickly for HR, legal, or investigative purposes.

Access Controls: Email archiving allows for hierarchical permissions, restricting access based on user roles or departments. Backups typically lack such granular access controls.

By understanding these distinctions, MSPs can effectively communicate the value of both email backup and archiving to their clients.

Ready to discuss how Dropsuite can empower your clients' email protection? Contact us today or visit our website to learn more about our cloud-based archiving solutions. visit our website to learn more about our cloud-based archiving solutions.