What if a malicious attack deleted your Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) objects? Or what if hundreds of objects get deleted across your Microsoft OneDrive account from a rogue script?
Think about it. If you’re a large enterprise customer, would you be prepared to rapidly recover from these scenarios at scale?
If you’re not able to answer with a resounding “Yes!”, then read on; Because the combination of the new Microsoft 365 Backup Storage solution and Rubrik Security Cloud may get you what you need.
What is Microsoft 365 Backup Storage?
Microsoft 365 Backup Storage is designed to provide recovery for large volumes of OneDrive, SharePoint, and Exchange Online data at “unprecedented speeds” —while keeping your backup data within the Microsoft 365 security boundary. With Microsoft 365 Backup Storage, you can:
Backup all or select SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts, and Exchange mailboxes in your tenant
Restore files, sites, and mailbox items in your tenant to a prior point-in-time at massive scale
Recover your data rapidly with recovery point objectives (RPO) as low as 10 minutes
Rubrik Integration for Microsoft 365 Backup Storage
Rubrik and Microsoft have partnered to deliver an integrated solution through Microsoft 365 Backup Storage APIs. This means joint Rubrik and Microsoft customers can use the Rubrik integration with the Microsoft 365 Backup Storage solution within Rubrik Security Cloud. This integration allows you to:
Use Rubrik’s orchestrated recovery capabilities to enable seamless and timely recovery of data across Microsoft 365 environments
Benefit from Microsoft 365 Backup Storage’s fast backup and restore speeds via the centralized Rubrik Security Cloud control plane
Combine Microsoft 365 recovery with recovery of critical Entra ID users and groups used by your Microsoft 365 environment
Let’s dive into each of these advanced components.
Microsoft APIs for Fast Backup and Recovery
While Microsoft 365 Backup Storage on its own will support one policy per object type (applied at the object type parent level vs. individual users, groups, and sites) and one RPO and retention value, the Rubrik integration allows you to apply a policy to a whole tenant or to a group. Objects in the groups added after the policy has been applied will also automatically be protected by the policy. And the parameters you choose to set can be quite aggressive to help meet even the strongest recovery requirements.
For example, you will be able to create a policy that will take a backup every 10 minutes and retain that data for 2 weeks, with variable retention controls coming in the future. Once a policy is created, Rubrik will issue the corresponding API calls into Microsoft 365 Backup Storage in order for Microsoft to handle orchestrating all of the snapshots and data lifecycle operations after the corresponding policy is activated.
From there, Rubrik Security Cloud will discover and inventory all users, groups, and SharePoint sites, making it easy to view snapshots via a calendar-based layout. Then, you can then drill down to show all the individual snapshots taken every 10 minutes, as in the example above, on a specific date.
Implementing a low RPO offers significant benefits for backup administrators. With the capability to recover a user mailbox, OneDrive account, or entire SharePoint site from backups taken every 10 minutes, administrators can ensure swift data retrieval. The Rubrik integration further enhances this by allowing you to apply protection to an entire group and easily recover all data within that group simultaneously. These features not only drastically reduce potential data loss but also minimize business disruption, leading to smoother operations and enhanced data security.
Plus, the unparalleled performance behind both the backup and restore processes is also designed to minimize costly downtime and provide a highly available data environment.
Microsoft Entra ID Protection
Rubrik also supports protection for Entra ID objects, and can offer protection for Microsoft 365 users and groups as part of an integrated solution. Recovery of Entra ID for Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and OneDrive is generally the first, critical step in the overall Microsoft 365 recovery process.
In fact, Rubrik protection for Entra ID is one of the most desirable additions Rubrik makes to Microsoft 365 Backup Storage solution. Recovering Entra ID objects can be a slow, manual process with Microsoft's built-in backups for Entra ID alone. Rubrik streamlines restores for Microsoft customers who require fast, scalable recovery above all else via the Microsoft APIs. The relevance in today’s attack landscape is undeniable, as 9 out of 10 cyber attacks involve identity services like Entra ID.
Plus, your organization may require additional protection of objects like deleted users or groups for both compliance and auditing purposes. You may also require the ability to perform granular recovery of configurations and to restore conditional access policies or settings for role-based access control (RBAC) or custom domains.
Another benefit of Rubrik protection is that Entra ID backups are fully hosted in a Rubrik-managed Azure environment, meaning they are logically air gapped away from your production Entra ID environment. In a cyberattack scenario, this helps ensure you can still recover even if the Entra ID recycle bin is purposely purged during the attack.
How Rubrik Entra ID Recovery Works for Microsoft 365
Even in the event of Entra ID credential compromise, Rubrik can assist in recovering critical data and preserving roles, permissions, and cross-object relationships. However, full object re-creation from the original to a new object is not yet supported in the current version. Instead, Rubrik focuses on restoring critical configurations and permissions while maintaining the integrity of your data, ensuring that future updates will cover more extensive recovery capabilities.
The recovery process is simple and twofold:
First, perform Entra ID recovery by selecting the users and/or groups you wish to restore. Click to recover.
Then, recover your data. Select one object or a whole group of Exchange, OneDrive, or SharePoint Sites. Click to recover.
Enjoy your successfully recovered data!
While deletion of critical Microsoft 365 data and Entra ID objects can be a frightening reality, rest assured that Rubrik can help you recover quickly—and avoid the costly business disruption or reputational damage that comes with trying to manually restore both your data and your essential configurations.
Rubrik-hosted Microsoft 365 Data Protection
Our existing Rubrik-hosted Microsoft 365 Data Protection solution offers powerful security and compliance-driven options for Rubrik-managed backup and recovery, including Sensitive Data Monitoring.
But this new integrated solution with Microsoft 365 Backup Storage is a great option for large Microsoft 365 environments in terms of scalable backup and recovery at unprecedented speed.
And, it will be able to be used within Rubrik Security Cloud alongside our Rubrik-hosted solution to centralize management of Microsoft 365, other SaaS, hybrid Azure, and multi-cloud workloads within a single pane of glass. You will also be able to more comprehensively protect your data across Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams, as Rubrik-hosted protection provides protection for Teams like data in Teams channels.
Rubrik’s solution also offers organizations the flexibility to leverage both Microsoft 365 Backup Storage and Rubrik-hosted protection. This combination delivers unprecedented speed and performance from Microsoft 365 Backup Storage, while Rubrik-hosted protection provides a logical air-gap and immutability, ensuring your critical data remains safe from cyber threats and accidental deletions. By maintaining this separation, organizations benefit from both the agility of Microsoft’s storage and the added security layer Rubrik brings with a fully-hosted solution.
To learn more about the Rubrik Integration for Microsoft 365 Backup Storage, check out our demo or talk to your Rubrik sales representative today. Stay ahead of the curve with Rubrik's innovative approach to data protection, ensuring your business remains resilient in the face of any disruption.