The Need for SaaS Backup
As organizations increasingly adopt and rely on Software as a Service (SaaS) for business-critical functions, it’s essential that IT operations and security professionals scrutinize the availability and integrity of the data within these posted applications.
Solutions like Microsoft 365, Entra ID, and Salesforce keep your data secure, and provide recycle bins that keep deleted data for a period of time… but they don’t offer SaaS backups unless you subscribe to additional services.
Common Misconceptions About SaaS Protection
Several misconceptions exist regarding how vendors protect your data, proving the need for SaaS data protection. Common issues are listed below.
- Accidental deletion and human error: If you accidentally delete data, you can’t recover it unless it’s in the recycle file. With some SaaS solutions, this isn’t an option. In Salesforce and Microsoft Entra ID, you may inadvertently delete data using the mass delete command. Human error is a common cause of data loss in Microsoft 365 and Salesforce.
- Derisk third-party service provider outages: Although SaaS vendors claim updates are seamless, you may still lose data in certain circumstances. Increasingly, regulatory compliance requirements place the onus on you, the customer, to maintain service delivery even if your third-party vendor experiences unforeseen issues.
- Your objects and identities need resilience too: cyber attacks often delete or corrupt individual user accounts, groups, or access policies. Recovering these granular objects manually is slow, error-prone, and often incomplete.
Malicious attacks: Cybercriminals can steal user credentials or maliciously encrypt data. Although Microsoft Defender has anti-phishing protection, the company emphasizes the importance of tuning anti-phishing protection and acknowledges some phishing messages can get through. Moreover, Microsoft reports that Entra ID sees 600 million identity attacks per day.
Why identities and objects require robust protection:
Identity is the new perimeter – If directory credentials, groups, or policies are compromised, attackers can move laterally or escalate privileges.
High-value targets – Objects like service accounts and access configurations are attractive attack vectors for adversaries.
Failure cascades quickly – Disruption in identity services often halts business-critical systems across the board.
How SaaS Users Can Protect Data
The above examples indicate how any SaaS solution can be compromised. This isn’t intended as a reflection on the companies concerned because they do an incredible job of protecting your data. However, mistakes and errors happen, and bad actors are always searching for vulnerabilities. Consider the following ways to protect critical data.
- Shared responsibility model: Each vendor goes to great lengths to specify their areas of responsibility, the customers’ responsibilities, and shared responsibilities. You should understand the service level agreements that explain each party’s obligations. Users must implement strong measures to protect their data through strong identity and access management policies and effective data protection policies.
- Data protection beyond built-in SaaS tools. You should consider implementing data protection policies and services outside the built-in tools provided by SaaS vendors. For example, you could choose a third-party backup solution that offers comprehensive backup protection against data loss, corruption, and theft.
Understanding the Shared Responsibility Model
The basis of the shared responsibility model is as follows:
- SaaS service provider responsibilities. Salesforce and Microsoft are responsible for physical infrastructure, such as data centers, networks, and cloud hosts. Depending on the provider, this may include identity and access management, management of firewalls, and enforcing tenant data isolation policies. Other areas of accountability include the operating system and SaaS applications.
- User responsibilities: Users must look after their data, accounts, and identities. They’re also accountable for the security of peripheral devices, such as laptops and mobile devices. Salesforce users are responsible for securing custom code and third-party integrations.
- Shared responsibilities: Depending on the service, there may be shared responsibilities. Microsoft considers identity and directory infrastructure a shared responsibility, while Salesforce doesn’t acknowledge any. However, there may be some gray areas where there’s an overlap of responsibility or neither party takes full accountability.
Additional SaaS Risk Considerations
One of the most serious gaps in the native protection provided by SaaS platforms is the security of add-ons, plugins, and third-party applications. For example, if a third-party platform becomes compromised, it can affect the SaaS platform. Native backup and data recovery solutions are often manual, piecemeal, and uncomprehensive. They require careful management and skills users may lack.
Mitigating Risk with a Dedicated Backup Solution
Third-party backup tools provide critical advantages: they offer longer retention windows, more granular recovery options, and protection against threats like accidental deletion, malicious insiders, or ransomware. Unlike native tools that are built for short-term recovery, third-party solutions give organizations full control over their data — ensuring compliance, faster restores, and true peace of mind.
Data Protection Options for SaaS
Now that we’ve covered “the why,” it’s time to tackle “the how.” The first option is to use capabilities offered by the SaaS vendor themselves. While deploying native protection options is often more user-friendly, there are pitfalls to putting your eggs in one basket. Alternatively, many organizations choose to leverage third-party tools uniquely built for backup. That said, these solutions are often more sophisticated and may require additional expertise. Let’s review both options.
Backup Using Built-in Tools
While Salesforce does a daily backup, it isn’t immediately accessible to users. They must rely on weekly and monthly data export services for their backups. Users also have limited ability to change backup cycles or frequently backup fast-changing data.
The Microsoft backup platform retains records for 1 year. Backups are separated geographically with multiple copies and offer good granularity down to the account level. However, users can’t specify their retention levels, and Microsoft recommends the use of third-party backups built on the 365 Backup Storage platform.
Since backups for Salesforce and Microsoft aren’t included in standard plans, they come with an additional cost.
Backing Up With Third-Party Tools
Relying on a third-party backup vendor means tapping into purpose-built technology designed by experts who specialize in data protection. These vendors don’t just back up data, they build solutions that align with evolving regulatory requirements, enforce granular access controls, and support enterprise-grade encryption and retention policies. By integrating with broader organizational data resilience strategies, third-party tools ensure that SaaS workloads are protected not just for convenience, but in accordance with compliance mandates and business continuity goals — all within a zero-trust framework.
Assembling Your Data Resilience Strategy for SaaS Applications
Each organization should consider their unique business challenges, like recovery point objectives (RPOs) and regulatory compliance requirements. Before purchasing a SaaS backup plan, it’s crucial to define your data protection requirements and capabilities.
Connect With Your Security Team to Capture the Latest Requirements
Your security team has a sound grasp of the configuration of your Microsoft or Salesforce applications. They’re familiar with security risks and can help determine the best data retention policies for your organization.
Map Required and Nice-to-Have Capabilities
List the essential capabilities for your backup solution. If you need help, speak to a professional in the field. For example, a partner can assist in conducting a business impact analysis (BIA) to assess data criticality, retention, and access requirements. This often changes depending on the SaaS application in play.
Recommended considerations to protect Microsoft 365 data: Points to evaluate include the specific 365 plan you have and features you’re using, such as Teams, online meetings, and chat groups. If you plan on using Microsoft’s backup tool, decide how many user licenses you need. Other points to consider are whether it’s necessary to protect data stored on endpoints and user devices. Establish the granularity you want and whether certain services require more frequent backups. Decide whether to use the Microsoft backup platform as a basis for your solution.
- Recommended considerations for Microsoft Entra ID: Microsoft Entra ID sits as the gateway to your organization, giving users access to Microsoft 365 and many other apps. But Microsoft’s native solution for Entra ID doesn’t have flexible long-term data retention features that modern business require today. This is important to consider as Microsoft Entra ID faces over 600 million cyberthreats every day. But the need to protect Entra ID goes beyond cyberthreats. Businesses also face challenges with complex compliance requirements, recycle bin limitations, accidental deletions, and policy misconfigurations. To make sure you are protecting both Microsoft Entra ID and Microsoft 365, consider a third-party solution that fully integrates with Microsoft’s service infrastructure.
- Recommended considerations for Salesforce data protection: The standard Salesforce backup is an add-on subscription that doesn’t support certain objects. Salesforce applications typically have a complex web of dependencies and relationships that your backup solution must be able to recreate. Backing up can throttle Salesforce, so it’s best done outside normal hours. The ability to separately back up rapidly changing data without affecting users is imperative, and it’s suggested the backup solution should support incremental backups.
Evaluate Storage Options
Depending on your backup vendor, you may have several storage options, including:
- Storage integrated with the vendor’s backup platform
- Flexible cloud storage
- Storage on a Windows or Linux server
- Network-attached storage
Consider “read and write” access speed, security, and reliability. The primary backup storage should closely link to the backup platform. Secondary storage shouldn’t be on the same platform and preferably not on the same cloud. It may be in another private or public cloud or on-premises servers. One backup is kept off-site on a standalone backup storage platform that’s completely isolated. For added protection, ensure all backups are immutable and encrypted.
Gauge Your User Experience Needs
Determine what you need from a backup solution. Evaluate various scenarios and how quickly you must be back in business. Assess the consequences of not having access for one, two, three, or more days. Determine the recovery point objective, which defines how much data you can afford to lose, the backup frequency, and when the last backup was taken. Calculate a recovery time objective, which measures the amount of time the business can afford to lose from a data loss incident to when your business is fully operational.
Consider Buying and Owning Backup Software
Choosing between self-managed backups and SaaS isn’t just a technical decision — it has major implications for people and processes. Managing storage infrastructure, tuning backup schedules, applying software patches, and monitoring for failures requires dedicated expertise and constant oversight. That’s time and talent your IT team could be spending on higher-impact initiatives. With SaaS, much of that complexity is abstracted away, reducing administrative burden and ensuring best practices are consistently followed. For organizations evaluating data protection strategies, deciding who manages the infrastructure is just as important as how it’s managed.
Why SaaS Backups for SaaS May Be Your Best Fit
While a SaaS backup solution entails a monthly subscription, it’s usually a good match for backing up a SaaS platform. SaaS platforms are easily scalable, and many are customizable to suit specific requirements. Vendors are responsible for managing backup software and installing updates. They’re better placed to adapt backup solutions to changing needs. Implementation is faster and more secure in many ways. SaaS can more readily provide unified SaaS backups across all the organization’s cloud assets.
Safeguard Your SaaS Data With Veeam
Companies using SaaS services are responsible for securing and backing up their data. Although built-in SaaS platforms protect our data files, few offer true backup services. When they do, they’re always at an extra cost and don’t offer the same granularity and flexibility as a third-party SaaS backup service, such as Veeam’s dedicated SaaS backup platforms for:
Veeam has been a leader in data resilience year after year, pushing the category forward with critical capabilities and innovating deployment models.
Don’t take chances with your Salesforce and Microsoft data. Secure it today with a Veeam backup protection solution tailored to your needs. Contact us for more information.
The post SaaS Backup Solutions: Protect Microsoft 365, Entra ID, and Salesforce appeared first on Veeam Software Official Blog.
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