Centralized Backup Solution for IMAP emails

[Canubis]

I am looking for a good solution to backup emails of our small team of currently 5 people (+ some generic email boxes).
Emails are stored on standard IMAP servers.
Local Time Machine backups are not an option, we’re in a mixed Mac/Windows/Android/iOS environment and also coworkers have different levels of IT knowledge and are also located in different places of the world.
So I’d prefer some centralized automated solution, like a trustful cloud service that would periodically backup all emails from the IMAP server to some secure and encrypted online storage, so backups can be accessed easily anytime by the owner of that mailbox.
Any experience or recommendations and other helpful insights appreciated!
Super curious how other small teams backup their emails.

 

[BrianBaughn]

What do you mean by "+ some generic email boxes"?

Are you wanting to back up the IMAP folder structure as well?

 

[Canubis]

Yes backup of all folders and their contents in that account would be important.

With generic email boxes I simply meant that there are some additional mailboxes every company has like office@, finances@, support@ etc. on top of the currently 5 individual mailboxes - just to give a scope. We don’t need a solution designed for a team with hundreds of people but also manual backups would be not practical.

 

[BrianBaughn]

So...you want easily accessible mirrored snapshots of every folder and email. Snapshots taken on a acceptable schedule...something like daily for a week, weekly for a month and monthly for a year. That setup would be about 23 snapshots...so 23 times the storage space you currently are using for all of the email accounts.

I have NO idea! It's the "accessed easily anytime" part that gets me. There may be an email host that could provide this service but I don't know which. That would mean moving to a new host and if this sort of easily accessible backup setup exists somewhere it's likely expensive.

You could do the backups on a single, running Mac configured with all the accounts in Mail and a Time Machine backup...but that's not easily accessible by your worldwide employees. How often would someone need this?

Auto-forwarding incoming and auto-BCC of outgoing to a second account wouldn't be "snapshots" nor would any folder structure be duplicated.

 

[Canubis]

Yep, basically I am looking for a “Time Machine for emails in the cloud” (or “on a Webserver” to avoid fancy buzzwords).

Smart incremental backups shouldn’t need tons of extra space, emails usually don’t change often, most important part would be accessing accidentally deleted emails I guess or doing a full restore if eg the email provider was hacked.

The easy access part would be debatable. Probably also okay if only accessible by an admin, still recovery should not be a big deal.

Wondering, how do other small teams and companies back up their emails? I’d imagine for most companies emails would be the most crucial part of their business after all.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Most companies would use a mail provider like Gmail or O365, and trust them to handle the live data set.

Next, backup Gmail with something like GMvault. Lots of others, though less for Mac than Win.

 

[Canubis]

Most companies would use a mail provider like Gmail or O365, and trust them to handle the live data set.

Next, backup Gmail with something like GMvault. Lots of others, though less for Mac than Win.

Thanks for that input! I rather prefer not to use Gmail or MS' Outlook email service, we already have a good & trustworthy local webhost and mail provider.
GMVault looks interesting, but seems to be gmail specific and also specific to personal account management. (A solution where backup for all mailboxes can be done centralized would be best, but at the same time where only the user of each mailbox can access that backup – to serve data & privacy protection laws.)

 

[BrianBaughn]

Your mail provider may be good and trustworthy but I assume they can't do what you want.

An alternate provider could get you closer to your goals with the flip of a switch.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Thanks for that input! I rather prefer not to use Gmail or MS' Outlook email service, we already have a good & trustworthy local webhost and mail provider.
GMVault looks interesting, but seems to be gmail specific and also specific to personal account management. (A solution where backup for all mailboxes can be done centralized would be best, but at the same time where only the user of each mailbox can access that backup – to serve data & privacy protection laws.)

Hmm...I am unaware of any tools for backing up email this is not for:

• personal email (per account)
• server (your own server
• enterprise cloud (gmail, O365)

Most orgs are either all in on an enterprise cloud, or run their own email server. is neither a choice? If not, you should talk with your current provider about backups. Maybe they can offer something.

 

[Canubis]

Thanks for all your input so far.

While researching I found a software called MailStore: https://www.mailstore.com

It seems to require installation on a Windows (server) machine and could then act as a mail backup server. Unfortunately not exactly what I am looking for, since I'd prefer to run it on our own Apache server or "in the Cloud". Still the best fit so far.

Anyone having any experience with them?

 

[hobowankenobi]

Looks like you are on the right path. Based on that product, here are possible alternatives to consider; need an entire separate box that is essentially capturing everything while relaying it to and from the email server. Archiving live emails. A bit different (more robust) that a traditional scheduled backup.

FYI, I admin'd a Barracuda spam filter years ago, and it was a great product, easy it manage, and a good value. Not cheap, but a better cost than equivalent products at the time.

Most of these types of products are not cheap, but have to iron clad from a legal/audit perspective, especially in HIPA and similar environments.

 

[GoetzPhil]

Hm I use Postbox as my email client - so I just would use CCC to make hourly backups of all the postbox mail folders on my Mac, that would do.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

@OP have you emailed your mail server support team?

 

[satcomer]

At least in Mail (the current version) in app you can click (to the right) of 'On My Mac' a plus sign click the plus sign and name you new mailbox saved or something along that line, the couch is up to you!