N-able Research Points to Need for M365 Backup: What MSPs Should Know

Recently released data from N-able points to the increasing need for data resilience and recovery through backup technologies among organizations. The vendor released data collected through its N-able Cove Data Protection offering showing, among other things, a 56% increase in disaster recovery events related to Microsoft 365 domains since 2023.

Ransomware attacks, natural disasters and more fuel threat to data

The data also suggests more MSPs are seeing the need for data protection, backup and recovery; 1,000 more MSPs offer backup services for Microsoft 365 with Cove, compared to last year. The company said that those providers are working with a total of 2.2 million Microsoft 365 end users, up 46% compared to the number utilizing Cove in 2023.

“We have been saying this, and believing this, for a while in terms of feeling that Cove was growing in use and that recovery generally was becoming more crucial to MSPs,” said Chris Groot, general manager of Cove Data Protection at N-able. “But actions always speak louder than words, and this data shows that our partners are taking action here.”

In addition to vendors like N-able sounding the alarm on the need for backup and recovery tools, Microsoft itself recommends third-party backup and recovery in addition to its own technology.

All of this is compounded by the fact that ransomware organizations and other threat actors are finding ways to penetrate simple backups and wreak havoc even on organizations who think their data is recoverable. N-able’s focus within the Cove solution is to secure the backup through a more robust data protection offering that anticipates the growing sophistication of ransomware and other attacks.

“We now see this technology as the standard of what partners need to provide their clients today, where two or three years ago, this level of protection might have been seen as more as an option,” said Groot.

Cove offers MSPs and their clients an ‘insurance policy,’ but nothing is perfect

Cove Data Protection’s cloud-first architecture archives data across workstations, servers and various components of Microsoft 365.

Groot and the N-able point to the following as some of the strongest differentiating features that Cove brings to MSPs:

• Immutable copies of data to isolate backups, designed to provide efficient recovery in the event of an attack
• Cloud-first technology, which provides quicker turnaround, global availability and added layers of efficiencies
• Multi-tenancy support for MSPs to get the visibility they need into all of their clients, plus enablement and education resources to help them get ahead

“We know it’s difficult for partners to work across all clients and handle all of the complexities that each client has within their organization, and our goal is to take work off the partners’ plate so they have time for other tasks,” Groot said.

Even with the protection and recovery capabilities offered by a product like Cove, Groot warned against any partner or company getting too comfortable with feeling fully protected.

“Ultimately, we will always need to operate with the assumption that if we are building a ten-foot tall wall, someone is out there developing an 11-foot ladder,” Groot said. “Continuous learning is always necessary, and so is choosing the best tools for the job.”

MSPs looking for the best solutions to address clients’ needs can utilize our product guides, including this one highlighting the best MSP software in several categories.