Leveraging backup-as-a-service (BaaS) for Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 has become the operational hub for email, collaboration and communication across hundreds of millions of business users. For most organizations, it’s where day-to-day work happens — in Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams. 

Yet even as adoption explodes, one dangerous assumption persists: that Microsoft automatically backs up all customer data. 

Microsoft 365 provides availability and short-term retention, not full backup. Once recycle bins expire or retention windows close, data deleted in the tenant can be gone for good. That gap creates both a risk for your clients and a revenue opportunity for managed service providers (MSPs) and IT consultants. 

Backup-as-a-service (BaaS) for Microsoft 365 lets you fill that gap with a recurring, high-value service. With the right platform, you can protect clients from data loss, ransomware and compliance failures while building predictable monthly revenue and stickier relationships. 

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud gives MSPs exactly that: a multitenant, automation-ready BaaS platform that’s easy to deploy, manage and monetize. 

Microsoft 365 is now entrenched as the productivity backbone for organizations of all sizes. With more than 400 million commercial users and counting, everything from customer communications to financial records and project documentation flows through the platform. 

But most of that data is not actually backed up. 

Many organizations: 

• Confuse retention policies with backup. 

• Assume recycle bins and version history are enough. 

• Believe Microsoft will recover their data in the event of an incident. 

The reality is different. Microsoft’s Shared Responsibility Model clearly states that while Microsoft protects the platform and infrastructure, customers are responsible for protecting their own data. That means if a user deletes a mailbox, a ransomware strain encrypts a SharePoint library, or a misconfigured policy purges Teams messages, Microsoft has no obligation to restore that data. 

Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams are often only protected by short-term retention (typically 30–90 days), with no way to roll back to a clean point in time once that window closes. 

For MSPs, this isn’t just a technical nuance — it’s a major service gap. Your clients expect you to “handle backup.” If you aren’t delivering a proper Microsoft 365 BaaS solution, you’re leaving them exposed and leaving money on the table. 

Microsoft 365 retention and recycle bins were never designed for full disaster recovery or long-term governance. They’re useful, but they’re not enough. 

Typical Microsoft 365 retention: 

• Keeps deleted items for a limited time (often 30–90 days). 

• Focuses on data lifecycle, not point-in-time recovery. 

• Lives inside the same tenant that can be compromised or misconfigured. 

That leaves organizations open to risk from: 

• Human error: Users deleting emails, files or Teams channels that turn out to be important later. 

• Malicious insiders: Staff intentionally purging content before leaving. 

• Ransomware and mass overwrites: Encrypted mailboxes, corrupted document libraries. 

• Policy misconfigurations: Incorrect or conflicting retention rules that purge critical data 

When those incidents occur, businesses need more than a recycle bin. They need a clean, independent copy of their data that can be restored quickly and precisely. 

Backup-as-a-service for Microsoft 365 solves these issues by delivering: 

• Independent, off-platform backups that remain intact even during tenant-level compromise. 

• Faster incident response and tenant recovery, with point-in-time restores. 

• Long-term retention aligned with compliance audits and legal requirements. 

• Granular recovery restoring a single email, file or Team instead of rolling back an entire tenant. 

Positioned correctly, BaaS becomes a resilience essential, not an optional add-on. It protects your customers’ business continuity while strengthening your own recurring revenue base. 

From a business standpoint, Microsoft 365 BaaS is one of the highest-ROI service expansions an MSP can add. 

Explosive demand, limited in-house expertise 

• Microsoft 365 continues to grow at an accelerated rate, with hundreds of millions of commercial licenses. 

• Regulatory frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, FINRA, SEC, ISO and others require verifiable, recoverable data archives. 

• Many SMB and mid-market organizations lack internal staff to build and maintain robust backup and continuity strategies. 

They’re already turning to MSPs for help managing their Microsoft 365 environments. Offering BaaS is a logical, high-value extension of that relationship. 

By adding Microsoft 365 BaaS, MSPs can: 

Generate predictable recurring revenue 

• Package BaaS as subscription tiers per seat, per tenant, or per workload. 

• Build stable MRR on top of your existing support contracts. 

Differentiate services with compliance and security 

• Prove that you can help clients meet retention and audit requirements. 

• Offer integrated backup + cyber protection + reporting bundles. 

Increase customer stickiness 

• When you own backup and continuity, you become harder to replace. 

• Your services are tied directly to the client’s ability to operate. 

Industry analysts consistently forecast strong growth for BaaS, reaching tens of billions of dollars globally over the next few years, largely driven by SaaS and Microsoft 365 adoption. In other words: The demand is there. You decide whether those contracts go to you or to another provider. 

Not all backup platforms are equal, especially when you’re delivering services at MSP scale. To build a profitable Microsoft 365 BaaS offering, you need technology that works for how you operate. 

Key capabilities to prioritize: 

Multitenant management 

Manage backups, recovery, alerts and reporting for all clients through a single unified console. You should be able to segment tenants, delegate permissions and standardize policies without logging into multiple portals. 

Automation and policy templates 

Your margins are built on efficiency. Look for: 

• Predefined backup and retention templates 

• Automated scheduling and job creation 

• Policy inheritance for new users and sites 

This reduces technician workload and ensures consistency across your client base. 

Granular recovery 

You must be able to restore: 

• Individual emails, folders or mailboxes 

• Specific files or libraries in SharePoint and OneDrive 

• Teams items: channels, messages and associated files 

All without impacting the rest of the tenant. 

RMM / PSA integration 

Tight integration with your existing stack (ConnectWise, Autotask, Kaseya, Syncro, etc.) is non-negotiable. You want: 

• Ticket creation for job failures 

• Usage data for automated billing 

• Centralized SLA and audit reporting 

Integrated security 

Modern backup must assume attack scenarios. Your platform should support: 

• Immutability 

• Encryption 

• Anomaly and behavior detection 

• Malware scanning of backup data 

White labeling and scalability 

To build your brand and scale: 

• Present the service under your own branding in reports and portals. 

• Handle hundreds or thousands of seats without complex re-architecting. 

• Maintain predictable performance as you grow. 

These are the baseline requirements for a Microsoft 365 BaaS platform that’s truly fit for MSPs. 

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud is built from the ground up for service providers, combining backup, cyber protection and automation into a single platform. For Microsoft 365 BaaS, it maps cleanly to your operational and revenue goals. 

Full Microsoft 365 workload coverage 

Protect all key services: 

• Exchange Online: mailboxes, folders, emails 

• OneDrive for Business: files and folders 

• SharePoint Online: sites, libraries, lists 

• Microsoft Teams: channels, messages and shared files 

You can standardize backup across the entire collaboration stack instead of cobbling together point solutions. 

Single multitenant console 

Manage every client’s Microsoft 365 backup from one place: 

• Onboard new tenants in minutes. 

• Apply policy templates by client, group or workload. 

• Monitor backup health, storage consumption and license usage centrally. 

This is the foundation for scaling BaaS without scaling headcount at the same rate. 

Policy-driven automation 

Acronis allows you to: 

• Define schedules, retention, and encryption once and reuse across clients. 

• Automatically protect new users, sites and Teams as they’re created. 

• Generate scheduled reports for internal ops and client-facing reviews. 

That automation turns backup from a manual task into a repeatable service. 

Granular, flexible recovery 

With Acronis, you can restore: 

• A single email without rolling back the entire mailbox. 

• A specific SharePoint library without impacting the rest of the site. 

• Individual OneDrive files or full account content. 

• Teams conversations and channel structures, preserving context. 

Recover to the original location or an alternate mailbox / site, or export for legal and compliance workflows. 

Integrated cyber protection 

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud goes beyond traditional backup by adding: 

• Anti-ransomware protection 

• Vulnerability assessments 

• Malware detection and scanning 

• Anomaly alerts indicating unusual activity or data patterns 

This helps you ensure the data you’re backing up — and restoring — is clean. 

Billing, branding and integrations 

For MSP operations, Acronis includes: 

• Usage-based billing tools 

• White-labeled reports and portals 

• Integrations with major RMM  /PSA platforms 

• APIs for custom workflows 

You get a full platform for delivering high-value services with reduced complexity. 

Technology alone doesn’t build a profitable service. You need a clear go-to-market approach. Here’s a practical, seven-step playbook. 

Offer structured packages, for example: 

• Essentials: Microsoft 365 backup only (Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams). 

• Advanced: Backup + disaster recovery options + basic cyber protection. 

• Compliance: Extended retention, reporting packs and audit support. 

Tiers help you serve different customer profiles while keeping sales conversations simple. 

Position M365 BaaS alongside: 

• Endpoint security and EDR 

• Compliance and governance consulting 

• Monitoring and managed detection services 

This turns backup into part of a broader resilience and compliance solution, not a standalone line item that’s easy to cut. 

Don’t let backup become invisible. Use Acronis reports to: 

• Show backup success and coverage each month. 

• Highlight storage consumption trends. 

• Document test restores and RTO performance. 

Regular reporting turns “we think you’re backing us up” into “we can see you’re protecting us.” 

Let prospects: 

• Onboard a subset of users. 

• Run a test backup and restore. 

• See how quickly you can recover a deleted mailbox or Team. 

Once they experience how straightforward recovery can be, the value of BaaS becomes obvious. 

Standardize: 

• Onboarding steps 

• Restore runbooks for common scenarios 

• Communication templates for incidents and reports 

This reduces variability, speeds up response and improves customer confidence. 

In sales conversations, don’t talk about: 

• Gigabytes of storage 

• Number of jobs 

• Technical jargon 

Instead, frame BaaS in terms of: 

• Business continuity 

• Reduced downtime 

• Compliance and audit readiness 

• Reduced risk from ransomware and insider threats 

Backup is a business problem, not just an IT one. 

Codify: 

• Recovery time objectives (RTOs) 

• Recovery point objectives (RPOs) 

• What happens during a Microsoft 365 incident 

This not only protects you legally but demonstrates professionalism and maturity to clients. 

Demand for Microsoft 365 protection will only continue to grow. Organizations are storing more critical data in the cloud, regulators are tightening expectations, and cyberthreats are getting more sophisticated. Clients are looking for a partner who can keep their Microsoft 365 environments resilient and compliant. 

Backup-as-a-service is your lever: 

• It strengthens client relationships by anchoring you at the center of business continuity. 

• It drives recurring revenue through subscription-based service tiers. 

• It differentiates your portfolio with security, compliance and automation baked in. 

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud delivers everything you need to build and scale a profitable M365 BaaS practice: multitenancy, automation, granular recovery, integrated cyber protection and a partner-ready commercial model. 

Ready to turn Microsoft 365 backup into a growth engine? 

Join the Acronis Partner Program or start a free trial of Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud and begin building your Microsoft 365 backup-as-a-service offering today.