Guidance · Backup and archive

Two wordsthat are oftenused as one.

A backup brings back what is lost. An archive proves what happened. Using one for the other shows up either during data loss or during an audit, and neither moment is convenient.

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Recovery versus evidence

Both from one provider

Four misconceptions that get expensive

They all sound plausible and are still wrong.

We back up daily, so retention is covered

A backup is overwritten, consolidated and deleted on a schedule. That is exactly why it cannot prove a particular message existed unaltered.

The archive is our safety net

An archive captures correspondence, not files, channels and mailbox structures. After a ransomware incident it will not give you your working state back.

A retention policy is an archive

A policy holds content while it applies and can be changed. Audit proof retention requires that changing it is precisely not possible.

One tool can do both

Technically the requirements exclude each other. One must be allowed to overwrite, the other must explicitly not be.

Incoming and outgoing message

365 Backup

Brings back what is lost.

Period set by operations

The same message, two jobs.

The same mail flow produces two separate stores. One exists for recovery and may rotate, the other exists for evidence and must not change.

Backup: mutable, rotating, driven by operations

Archive: immutable, time bound, audit proof

Both from one contract and one interface

No duplicate capture in the mail flow

How to tell them apart

Three questions that make the decision for you.

1. What triggered it?

If something is missing and has to exist again, it is a backup case. If someone asks what was written and when, it is an archive case.

2. Who is asking?

If your own department asks, it is about being able to work. If an auditor, a court or the tax office asks, it is about evidence.

3. What must be unalterable?

Whatever you present to a third party must be provably unchanged. Whatever you restore for yourself mainly has to be complete and current.

The differences in detail

Six points where the two jobs part ways.

Purpose

The backup restores a state. The archive evidences an event. Everything else follows from that.

Scope

The backup covers mailboxes, files, channels and libraries. The archive covers correspondence, and covers it without gaps.

Mutability

Backup states may rotate and expire. Archived messages must be neither altered nor removed early.

Retention period

For backups, operations decide, usually weeks to months. For archives the law decides, in Germany typically six, eight or ten years.

Access

Administrators restore from the backup. In the archive, departments and auditors search for themselves, with every access logged.

Deletion

The backup deletes automatically on expiry. The archive deletes only after the statutory period and must support a hold for ongoing proceedings.

Side by side

The same question, two answers.

	365 Backup	Conbool Archive
Restore a deleted file from OneDrive	yes	no
Evidence for a message from seven years ago	no	yes
Protection against altering the content	no	yes
Working state after a ransomware incident	yes	no
Satisfies commercial and tax retention duties	no	yes

This overview is not legal advice. Which periods and duties apply to your company depends on legal form, sector and type of records.

Frequently asked questions

Can we get by with the backup alone?

Only where no retention duty exists, which for business correspondence is practically never. What counts in an audit is not that the message still exists, but that it is provably unaltered.

Is the archive enough on its own?

Not for being able to work. An archive returns your correspondence, but neither the folder structure of a mailbox nor files from SharePoint or Teams.

How long must we archive?

In Germany, business records typically carry retention periods of six, eight or ten years depending on the type of document. Which applies is best confirmed with your tax adviser.

What about Microsoft's retention features?

They hold content for a defined period and can be changed. They are not designed for recovery after expiry or for proving that nothing was altered.

Do we really need both?

In most companies yes, because the two questions arise independently. They can however be combined into one contract and one interface.

Which comes first?

Archiving, because there is a statutory duty and a gap cannot be filled retroactively. A backup can be added later without anything being missing.

Keep them separate and still run them together

We look at your requirements and map the two jobs concretely for your organisation.

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