Scored3 products
Tools14 min
The Microsoft 365 backup tools worth paying for
Native retention is not backup. What that actually means, what separates the products, and the seat count below which none of them are worth buying.
Read the guideIndependent. No sponsored rankings, ever.
Straight answers about Microsoft security.
What to buy for Microsoft 365 and Azure, which certification is worth your time, what compliance actually requires, and how to design it so it survives year two.
Microsoft 365 backup, scored
| Criterion | Native | BestVendor A | Vendor B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Point-in-time restore | |||
| Teams chat coverage | |||
| Immutable copies | |||
| Restore without a ticket |
Verdict
Native retention is not backup, and neither product is worth it under about 200 seats.
Products covered so far
MicrosoftDefender, Purview, Entra, Sentinel, Intune
VeeamMicrosoft 365 backup and recovery
AcronisBackup and endpoint protection
NordLayerZero Trust network access
KeeperPassword and secrets management
HornetsecurityEmail security and 365 backup
VantaCompliance automation
RubrikData resilience and recovery
HuntressManaged detection and response
ThreatLockerApplication allowlisting
Start here
The decisions that cost the most to get wrong
Three comparisons where the wrong choice is expensive, either in licence spend or in the incident it fails to prevent.
Over-licensed£64k
Right tier£27k
The gap is usually one tier and nobody notices until renewal.
Scored3 products
Tools12 min
Zero Trust network access for teams that outgrew the VPN
When the old concentrator becomes the bottleneck, what to replace it with, and why most Zero Trust projects stall at the identity layer rather than the network one.
Read the guideScored3 products
Tools9 min
Defender for Business or Defender for Endpoint P1: the honest comparison
Two Microsoft products with overlapping licensing, a 300-seat cliff that catches people out, and a decision most organisations get wrong by exactly one tier.
Read the guideThe method
Every recommendation has to survive a real deployment
Most comparison content is a feature table rewritten from vendor marketing. This is not that. Each guide states what the product does badly, who should not buy it, and what it costs once the discount expires.
Read the full method- 01
Scope the real requirement
Start from the problem a team actually has, not the category a vendor invented.
- 02
Test against the awkward cases
Hybrid identity, delegated admin, offboarding, and whatever breaks at scale.
- 03
Price it honestly
Licence tier, per-user creep, and what the renewal looks like in year two.
- 04
Say who should not buy it
A recommendation with no disqualifying case is an advert, not advice.
Sections
What we cover
Four areas, each with its own hub. Nothing is published until it has been run against a real tenant.
- Tools and buyer guides21
- Certification guides13
- Compliance and governance11
- Architecture notes10
What changed this year
Microsoft keeps retiring exams. We track the dates.
Which Microsoft security exams are about to disappear
Published Microsoft dates, not estimates. Bars end on the announced retirement date.
- Current
- New
- Retiring
- Retired
- SC-400
- AZ-500
- MS-102
- SC-500
- SC-401
- SC-200
- SC-100
AZ-500 has under two months left. If you are studying it now, SC-500 is the exam to switch to.
Independence
Why you can trust a ranking on this site
This site carries no author byline on purpose. You are being asked to trust the method, not a personality.
- 30%Restore and recovery
- 25%Coverage gaps
- 25%Cost at renewal
- 20%Admin overhead
Weights are published on every guide. Commission is not one of them.
No paid placements
No vendor has ever paid to appear here, to rank higher, or to have a competitor left out. There is no sponsored tier and there never will be.
Affiliate links change nothing
Some links earn a commission. The commission rate is never a ranking input, and products with no affiliate programme at all are recommended when they are the better answer.
Tested, not summarised
Every recommendation is based on running the product against the awkward cases: hybrid identity, delegated admin, offboarding, and whatever breaks past a few hundred seats.
Trade-offs stated
Each guide names what a product does badly and who should not buy it. A recommendation with no disqualifying case is an advert, not advice.
Everything else
Recently written
- Tools and buyer guidesMicrosoft 365 email security: when the built-in tier is not enoughExchange Online Protection is included and is genuinely decent. What the paid tiers add, and the specific attack it is worth paying to stop.11 min
- Tools and buyer guidesPassword managers for IT teams: what changes above 50 peopleThe consumer products work fine until you need provisioning, shared vaults with real boundaries, and an answer for what happens when someone leaves.10 min
- Tools and buyer guidesMicrosoft Sentinel gets expensive fast. Here is where the money goesIngestion pricing punishes exactly the logs people connect first. What to keep hot, what to send cheap, and the settings that cut a bill without cutting detection.13 min
- Tools and buyer guidesManaged detection and response, or build your own SOCThe honest cost comparison, including the part vendors leave out: what a 24 hour rota actually costs once you account for people leaving.12 min
- Tools and buyer guidesEntra ID P1 or P2: what the extra tier actually buysP1 gives you Conditional Access. P2 gives you the ability to prove who has privilege and take it back. Which one you need depends on one question.9 min
- Tools and buyer guidesMicrosoft 365 E3 with add-ons, or E5: the security mathsThe jump to E5 is large and the add-on route looks cheaper. Where that stops being true, and the trap of buying three add-ons.11 min
- Tools and buyer guidesWhich MFA method to standardise onSMS is still the most deployed and the weakest. What to move to, in what order, and how to handle the people who cannot use an app.10 min
- Tools and buyer guidesRemoving local admin rights without breaking everyoneThe highest-value endpoint control and the one most often abandoned halfway. Why it fails, and the sequence that gets it done.11 min
The briefing
One email when something actually changes
Exam retirements, licensing changes, and the occasional guide. No cadence for the sake of cadence.
- ToolsThe Microsoft 365 backup tools worth paying for
- CertificationsAZ-500 retired on 31 August 2026
- ComplianceMapping ISO 27001 controls to Microsoft Purview
Sent only when something changes. No cadence for its own sake.