Having a secure backup is a great way to protect your data from being lost, overwritten, hacked, or compromised in any other way. Besides, IT compliance regulations and standards often require a backup. As an award-winning backup solutions provider, we’d like to overview how to backup Google Workspace data.
In this article, we’ll look at various tools to back up your Google Workspace (G Suite) data. We’ll cover Google’s own functionality, on-premise backup options, and third-party Google Workspace backup solutions.
Backup Google Workspace data
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Backup Google Workspace Data With Google’s Own Tools
Google has a number of tools to back up your Gmail and Drive. These tools are Backup and Sync, Google Vault, and Google Takeout.
Google Workspace Backup and Sync
When do you need Backup and Sync? In situations where you need something easy-to-use and your data flow is not very intense.
The Backup and Sync tool allows you to synchronize your local drive with Google Drive. In other words, your data would be stored in two copies―one on Google Drive and the other on your computer.
This tool is fast and easy to use. Here’s how to back up your data with it. While being useful for protecting your files on Google Drive and your computer at the same time, often Backup and Sync may not be the best option. Your backup space is limited to your hard drive, which isn’t enough for many businesses.
If you delete or change your data, both versions will be affected due to synchronization. In other words, if you need to store your data for a long time, you’ll need another tool (like Google Vault, which we’ll talk about further in the article).
From a security perspective, Backup and Sync has some limitations. It doesn’t follow the 3-2-1 backup strategy, one of the best backup practices. Also, this tool lacks advanced cybersecurity features like ransomware prevention. That’s why the backup and sync process is vulnerable to ransomware.
Backup Google Workspace Data in Google Vault
When do you need Google Vault? In case you need a tool to archive your data for audit or legal reasons.
Is Google Vault a backup solution? Not really. Google Vault is an archiving tool, primarily used to retain your data for legal reasons. It can be used to preserve your data for a long period of time.
Google Vault does not allow you to directly restore your files back to Google Drive or Gmail. Instead, you have to search for your data, export it, and import it into Google Workspace (G Suite), which is pretty time-consuming.
Vault is more expensive than third-party backup tools. You can read more about it here. If you want to back up your data using Google Vault, follow these steps.
Google Takeout
When do you need Google Takeout? In situations where you want to download your Google Workspace data to store it on-premise.
Takeout is another of Google’s archiving tools. With this tool, you can download your archived data—here’s how to do it. You can select and download items across Gmail, Google Drive, Contacts, and other Google Workspace services.
The download format varies and is often customizable. For example, you can choose to download spreadsheets from your Google Drive in either XLSX or PDF formats.
As you’ve probably understood by now, Takeout is a tool to create a copy of your data, not to store or retrieve data. If you’ve decided to use this tool as a backup, you’ll still need to store a copy of your data somewhere.
On-premise Google Workspace Backup
When do you need an on-premise backup? If you need your own backup infrastructure and have the resources to build it.
On-premise means that you back up your Google Workspace data using your own infrastructure. How? Your company uses its own hardware and assigns someone to copy your data and manage its storage, accessibility, and recovery.
With on-premise storage, you can customize your data backups as you see fit, without relying on an Internet connection. You can decide where and how to store your data, how many copies should be made and how often.
However, there are some obstacles that you’ll face while storing backups on-premise. They are:
- Backup and recovery are manual, as well as infrastructure maintenance
- Your hardware may be damaged physically or stolen
- Building on-prem infrastructure requires significant resources, both financial and human
- Human error can lead to data loss
- You may not be able to copy your data if your dataflow is intense
Taking all those limitations into account, it’s no wonder that businesses look for tools that are easier to set up and maintain. That’s why it’s common to back up your data to the cloud (despite storing data in the cloud, Google Drive is not a cloud backup). To back up your data to the cloud, you may consider specialized backup software.
Google Workspace Cloud Backup Solutions
When do you need third-party backup tools? If you need to automate the protection of your Google Workspace data and ensure compliance without unnecessary effort.
Google Workspace cloud backup tools copy your data to a cloud and recover it if the need arises. Did you lose your email and need that Google Workspace (G Suite) email backup resored? The Gmail message recovery tool will fix it.
Professional backup software protects your data automatically, minimizing your effort and the chance of user error. Compared to Google’s native tools, backup software gives you more control over backup versions and recovery as well as better customization.
There are many cloud backup providers for Google Workspace including Backupify, Acronis, Spanning, and SpinOne. SpinOne for Google Workspace is a unique solution, that combines backup with ransomware protection and cybersecurity. Here’s what makes our tool a great backup option for you:
- Automated backup with 99.99% recovery success rate
- Backup data encrypted in transit and at rest
- User-friendly interface and fast search
- Our license threshold allows even small businesses to back up their data. We provide backup services for Google Workspace accounts with at least 5 licenses
- Basic backup functionality can be upgraded with a ransomware protection module and advanced cybersecurity tools. This will give your data even better protection
Here you can watch more about our tool:
Don’t let data loss catch you off-guard. Backup your data now.