Sophos & Rubrik launch integrated Microsoft 365 backup service
Sophos and Rubrik have announced a partnership to deliver a Microsoft 365 cyber resilience solution aimed at protecting businesses from the risks of ransomware, account compromise, insider threats, and data loss across popular Microsoft applications.
The new solution, Sophos M365 Backup and Recovery Powered by Rubrik, marks the first Managed Detection and Response (MDR)-optimised Microsoft 365 backup and recovery service to be fully integrated within Sophos Central, the company's security operations platform. It is designed to allow IT and cybersecurity teams to access a unified global platform for enhanced cyber defence and recovery operations.
Integration with Sophos Central
The service is intended as a new add-on for Sophos' more than 75,000 MDR and XDR customers, enabling the rapid and secure restoration of Microsoft 365 data in the event of accidental deletion or malicious activity. The solution integrates Rubrik's SaaS-based data protection directly with the Sophos Central platform, which assimilates over 350 different telemetry sources from endpoint, cloud, network, identity, email, and business applications.
Joe Levy, Chief Executive Officer at Sophos, commented:
"We are reshaping what it means to stay operational in a world shaped by constant digital disruption. This is the future of cyber resilience: an intelligent, adaptive partnership that ensures organizations remain secure, responsive, and uninterrupted. By combining Sophos' prevention-first approach with Rubrik's unwavering recovery capabilities, we empower businesses to withstand attacks and maintain continuity, even under pressure."
The new offering is underpinned by a prevention-first strategy combined with Rubrik's recovery technologies to address the increasing frequency and sophistication of security incidents impacting business continuity.
Features and functionality
Sophos M365 Backup and Recovery facilitates the restoration of data for SharePoint, Exchange, OneDrive, and Teams users. The integration with Sophos Central aims to streamline protection and recovery without the need for additional tools. The platform is detailed as leveraging deep learning, custom large language models (LLMs), and frontier models to better detect and respond to threats across a wide attack surface.
Bipul Sinha, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman, and Co-founder of Rubrik, said:
"The reality of today's threat landscape demands a holistic approach to cyber resilience. With AI-enabled attacks and sophisticated breaches on the rise, organizations need more than just prevention; they need the ability to recover rapidly and reliably. Our partnership with Sophos delivers this critical capability directly within a platform security teams already use and trust, raising the bar for Microsoft 365 resilience."
The joint solution promises immutable backups isolated using air-gapped storage, WORM (Write Once Read Many) locks, and encryption keys controlled by the customer. Multi-factor authentication and other measures are said to prevent unauthorised tampering, even if credentials are compromised. Customers can restore Microsoft 365 components to original or alternate user accounts, including those that are inactive, to support diverse recovery scenarios.
The product also automates protection across the Microsoft 365 estate by discovering new users, sites, and mailboxes, applying Entra ID-based policies, and supporting delegated administration - all managed from the Sophos Central interface.
Addressing the threat landscape
Research highlighted by both companies signals an urgent requirement for reinforced Microsoft 365 data defences. According to The State of Ransomware report from Sophos, almost half of ransomware-impacted organisations paid ransoms to recover data, but only 54% relied on backups for restoration. Other studies cited reveal that 60% of Microsoft 365 tenants have faced account takeovers and 81% suffered email compromise, exposing businesses to significant operational risk when retention policies or admin credentials are breached.
Both Sophos MDR and XDR customers will have access to this backup and recovery feature, structured to close the gap between prevention and recovery for critical business data stored in cloud environments. The aim is to provide what the companies articulate as speed, granularity, and reliability when restoring information following security incidents.
The collaboration is part of Sophos and Rubrik's stated commitment to help organisations manage risk confidently and recover from breaches or data loss with minimal disruption.
This service will be available through Sophos' channel partner network in the coming months.
