Archive
- Holds mail for years, often to meet legal or regulatory retention periods.
- Keeps the main mailbox small, so Outlook stays fast.
- Searchable by the user, and by administrators for disputes or subject access requests.
- In Exchange, an archive mailbox plus retention policies; journaling adds an independent copy of every message.
Backup
- A point-in-time copy, kept separately from the live system.
- Used to restore a mailbox, a folder or a whole server after something goes wrong.
- Usually kept for weeks or months, not years.
- Must be held where ransomware on your network cannot reach it.
Why one does not replace the other
An archive inside the same system you are trying to protect is no help if that system is encrypted by ransomware. A 30-day backup is no help when a client disputes something from four years ago. Our guide on how long UK businesses should keep emails covers retention.
On MyExchangeServer, daily backups with 30-day recovery are included, and archive mailboxes and journaling are optional add-ons on our price list.