Traditional backup means buying hardware, managing software licences, checking tapes, replacing drives and hoping the restore actually works when you need it. Backup as a Service removes all of that — fully managed cloud backup for everything from Microsoft 365 to your on-premise servers, delivered as a monthly subscription with guaranteed recovery SLAs and 24/7 monitoring.
These are the six most dangerous assumptions we see Dubai businesses making about their data protection. Each one looks safe until the moment you need a restore.
Microsoft provides availability — not backup. Exchange deleted items are kept 14–30 days. SharePoint files 93 days. There is no way to restore a mailbox or SharePoint site to its state on a specific date last year.
A job that reports success has completed without error — it does not confirm the data is restorable. Backup catalogues can become corrupted. Application-consistent snapshots can fail silently. Restores fail for reasons the backup job never sees.
If your backup software is connected to the same network as your primary data — as most on-premise solutions are — ransomware can encrypt your backup repository alongside everything else, leaving you with no clean recovery point.
Restoring a full server from a backup stored offsite or in cloud storage requires downloading potentially terabytes of data — at typical UAE business internet speeds, that can take 6–18 hours before the server is even accessible.
Ransomware typically remains dormant for 30–60 days before detonating, giving it time to reach all backup copies. A 30-day window may contain only encrypted data — leaving you with no clean recovery point at the moment you need one most.
Most IT teams manage backup on top of a dozen other responsibilities. Failed backup alerts get buried in email, dismissed as transient errors or simply missed during busy periods. Weeks of failed jobs are routinely discovered only when a restore is attempted.
BaaS covers every data source in your business — cloud applications, on-premise servers, virtual machines, databases and endpoints — under a single managed service with one monthly bill.
Comprehensive backup of Exchange Online mailboxes, SharePoint sites, OneDrive files and Teams conversations — including channels, chats and files. Point-in-time restore to any date within your retention window. Individual items, entire mailboxes or full SharePoint sites restorable in minutes from a self-service portal.
Agent-based backup of Windows and Linux servers and application-aware backup of Hyper-V and VMware virtual machines to immutable cloud storage. Incremental forever backup keeps daily change rates minimal while maintaining full restore capability. Instant VM Recovery delivers RTO under 15 minutes for critical servers.
Application-consistent backup of Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle — including transaction log backups for near-zero RPO. Granular restore options: individual tables, specific databases or full instance recovery. Log shipping backup provides point-in-time recovery to any minute within the retention window.
Continuous backup of laptop and desktop data for remote workers and executives — critical when devices hold locally saved files that are never synced to a corporate server. Backs up Documents, Desktop, Downloads and custom-specified folders to cloud on every change, with file versioning and point-in-time restore accessible from any browser.
All backup data stored in Azure Blob or S3-compatible object storage with object-lock enabled — meaning written backup copies cannot be modified, overwritten or deleted for the configured retention period, regardless of whether an administrator or ransomware attempts to do so. Every backup is automatically verified with a checksum on storage.
Our team monitors every backup job daily — not weekly, not when someone remembers to check. Failed jobs trigger immediate investigation and remediation before the next backup window. Monthly restore tests on critical workloads confirm recoverability. When you need a restore — scheduled or emergency — we handle it end-to-end.
Microsoft 365 is designed for availability — not data protection. Here is exactly what Microsoft retains natively compared to what a dedicated BaaS solution adds. The gaps are larger than most IT teams realise.
| Data Source | Microsoft Native Retention | With Zeronix BaaS |
|---|---|---|
| Exchange Online | Deleted items: 14 days. Deleted mailboxes: 30 days. No point-in-time restore. No granular item recovery to a specific date. | Unlimited point-in-time restore to any date. Individual email, folder or full mailbox recovery. Retain up to 7 years. |
| SharePoint Online | Recycle bin: 93 days. Version history: limited. No restore to a specific past state. Entire site or library restoration not available. | Full SharePoint site restore to any point in time. Individual document, list item or complete site collection recovery on demand. |
| OneDrive for Business | Recycle bin: 93 days. Version history retained but limited. Mass deletion or ransomware may purge versions. No cross-user restore. | Point-in-time restore for individual users or the entire organisation. Recover any file version at any date. Admin-controlled restore. |
| Microsoft Teams | Messages stored in Exchange, but chat history and channel posts have complex, incomplete recovery paths. Deleted teams: 30-day soft-delete only. | Full Teams channel, chat and file recovery. Restore deleted teams, channels and conversations at any granularity, to any point in time. |
| Microsoft Entra ID | Audit log: 30 days (90 with P1 licence). No native restore for deleted users, groups or app registrations after the recycle bin period. | Backup of directory objects, group memberships and app configurations. Restore deleted users, groups and permissions to a prior state. |
The difference between BaaS and a self-managed backup tool is not the software — it is the human accountability. Someone at Zeronix is responsible for your backup working. Every day.
Our team reviews every backup job result each morning. A failed job is investigated and resolved before you are even at your desk — not discovered weeks later when you need a restore.
We test restores on your critical workloads every month and provide a written report confirming the data is actually recoverable. You get proof of backup health, not just a green light on a dashboard.
No surprise costs for additional restore bandwidth, extra storage tiers or add-on licensing. BaaS is a predictable monthly subscription — per-protected-workload pricing with transparent storage included.
When you need data recovered — whether a single deleted email or a full server — you call us and we do the restore. No learning a new console, no reading documentation under pressure, no troubleshooting at 2 AM.
No rip-and-replace, no downtime, no complicated migration. We deploy BaaS alongside what you already have, verify every workload is protected and hand you a monthly report from day one.
We review your current backup setup — what is protected, what is not, retention periods, last successful restore test, M365 coverage gaps — and produce a written gap analysis showing exactly what is at risk today.
We define backup schedules, retention periods, recovery point objectives and storage tiers for each workload. You approve the scope before any agent is deployed or data is touched.
Backup agents deployed silently to servers and endpoints during off-hours. First full backup runs overnight. M365 connected via app registration — no passwords, no proxy, no impact on user experience.
Restore test confirms all workloads are actually recoverable. Daily monitoring begins immediately. Monthly reports land in your inbox — job results, storage consumed, restore tests completed and any exceptions.
These sectors operate under regulatory requirements, client contractual obligations or operational realities where losing data — even temporarily — triggers consequences that far exceed the cost of protection.
We deliver BaaS using best-in-class backup platforms — all configured, monitored and maintained by our engineers so you never have to think about backup software again.
Common questions from Dubai businesses about Backup as a Service and Microsoft 365 data protection.
If you cannot answer that question immediately, the answer is probably "not recently enough." A free backup audit shows you exactly what is protected, what is not and whether your current backups are actually restorable — before you find out the hard way.