SaaS: How To Back Up Google Apps

Google might seem infallible at times, but the truth is that data does disappear from the Google Apps SaaS productivity suite now and then. To address the problem, Backupify and Spanning Backup are two options designed to let enterprise Google Apps solutions providers back up and protect vital cloud-based data. Here’s the scoop.

Backupify and Spanning Backup have a lot in common: they store Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts data in the Amazon EC2 cloud, providing a secondary, independent backup — even putting aside maliciousness as a cause of data loss, accidents do happen and sometimes things get deleted.

The main difference between the two is that Backupify has a formal partner program, enabling MSPs to protect 10 Google Apps accounts for $9.95/month, 25 for $29.95/month, or 50 for $59.95. It’s worth noting that Backupify enables local PC backups of cloud data as well.

While the recently-launched Spanning Backup does support entire Google Apps domains, it comes in at $3.95/month/user or $39.95/year/user — apparently, a better value proposition for individuals but probably a weaker one for the enterprise.

Reality check: MSPmentor hasn’t heard much about Google Apps losing enterprise users’ data. But Backupify and Spanning Backup put a price tag on peace of mind.

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