Find your fit
Who it is for
A virtualization administrator can protect VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix or Proxmox machines and plan a full-VM restore to a chosen host. Test a nonproduction machine so the team knows which recovery point and destination to use before an outage.
A small IT team with physical servers and file shares can use the same product family, while licensing those sources by the relevant server, workstation or NAS unit. Build a workload inventory before comparing bids.
An organization protecting Microsoft 365 should scope Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams data separately. The Microsoft 365 license is per user and can be bought on its own or combined with an existing product license.
The work it supports
Core capabilities
Start by adding the protected environment and storage to inventory. The initial wizard then introduces Transporter nodes and repositories. NAKIVO can be deployed as a virtual appliance or installed on supported hardware or NAS, so the deployment design should account for the actual platforms and data paths.
A repository holds backup data and metadata. During setup, it can be local or remote. Choose placement and capacity for the restore path as well as the backup path; a repository name alone does not prove the copy can be recovered after a site failure.
Create backup and replication jobs for the chosen inventory. Policy rules can add matching VMs, physical machines or EC2 instances using attributes such as names, tags and location, reducing the chance that a new matching workload is left out of a manual list. Review policy matches regularly.
A backup copy job can send selected backups to another destination with its own schedule and retention settings. Evaluate the secondary copy with a test restore, especially if it is intended to survive loss of the primary repository.
For a larger failure, full recovery restores a VM from a backup point to a selected host. For a smaller incident, granular recovery can retrieve individual files and objects without rebuilding the entire VM. Confirm that the particular platform and object type are supported.
The supported-platform list includes Microsoft 365 services. Check the mailbox, drive, site and Teams objects that matter to the organization and perform a sample recovery before relying on coverage. Licensing for this protection is considered separately below.
Understand the offer
Pricing and getting started
The five standard editions are Pro Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Pro, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus. The Essentials editions limit licensed units, and some advanced features or platforms vary by edition. Ask for the edition comparison for the workloads and restore methods in the purchase plan.
For a perpetual license, VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix and Proxmox VM protection is generally licensed by occupied CPU socket; physical machines, NAS capacity and Oracle databases use different units. A quote should count the relevant sources rather than assume one meter covers the whole environment.
Per-workload subscriptions count VMs and EC2 instances individually, a physical server or group of three workstations as a unit, and NAS capacity separately. The official guide describes one-to-five-year subscriptions billed upfront with 24/7 support for the licensed period.
Microsoft 365 backup has a separate annual per-user subscription, available by itself or with another NAKIVO license. Confirm the Microsoft 365 user count and covered services, plus how changes during the term are handled, before accepting the quote.
Perpetual licenses include one year of Standard Support; ongoing product updates require valid support. NAKIVO directs buyers to sales for pricing and upgrades, so obtain an itemized written quote for edition, units, support and term.
The setup guide offers a 15-day full-function trial to an eligible Free-license deployment that has not used its Trial. It says the deployment returns to Free when Trial expires. Confirm the trial path and free-edition limits rather than treating trial features as permanent rights.
Look a little closer
Before you choose
Before deployment, list the exact source versions, applications and Microsoft 365 services; compare each with the supported-platform and feature requirements. Then size the appliance or host, Transporters and repositories for those sources.
Run a safe recovery exercise: create a backup, copy it to the intended secondary destination, restore a test VM and retrieve a single file or object. Record elapsed steps and who has access. The vendor documentation explains these paths, but a published feature is not proof that this environment has been tested.
Count socket, VM, physical, NAS and Microsoft 365 licensing units separately, then confirm the edition, support term and trial-to-paid transition in writing. This avoids assuming that all protected data shares one plan or that a 15-day trial reflects the purchased entitlements.
11 distinct sources behind this profile. Research observed Oct 26, 2026. Features and offers can change.
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