What is SharePoint archiving vs backup?

Archiving relocates inactive data to lower-cost storage, reducing your live storage footprint and ongoing costs. Backup preserves recent data for recovery after data loss — these are two distinct purposes. Archiving focuses on cost optimization and lifecycle management, while backup is intended for disaster recovery.

Can Microsoft 365 Archive archive individual files?

Currently, Microsoft 365 Archive supports archiving full sites only. Granular file-level archiving is not supported. This means specific files or folders cannot be archived individually; instead, the entire site must be archived and becomes inaccessible until reactivated.

Can end users access archived content without IT?

With ShArc, end users can access archived files through SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, or File Explorer without IT involvement. With Microsoft 365 Archive, the entire site must be reactivated by an administrator before any content becomes accessible.

Will archived content still be secure and compliant?

Yes. Both ShArc and Microsoft 365 Archive preserve metadata, permissions, and compliance context after archiving. Data remains protected and audit-ready throughout its lifecycle in the archive.

Does archiving actually reduce storage costs?

Yes. Moving inactive content into lower-cost storage reduces high-cost primary tenant storage usage. Microsoft 365 Archive moves data into a cold storage tier with reduced per-GB pricing, while ShArc provides visibility into potential savings before archiving.

Work in SharePoint—store in Azure | ShArc by Layer2 leading solutions

Rapidly increasing storage costs

SharePoint's default storage allocation is quickly exhausted as businesses scale, and the cost of additional storage is steep. Many companies are paying thousands of euros annually just to keep their data accessible, limiting their ability to allocate resources to more critical IT needs.

Meet ShArc—and optimize your SharePoint storage costs

Efficiently reduce your SharePoint storage costs by seamlessly offloading data to Azure Blob Storage, all while maintaining access and control.

Your storage costs per year

You have two options to maximize your SharePoint storage: purchasing additional storage in SharePoint or utilizing your Azure Blob Storage.

15TB extra SharePoint Online storage per month cost per year: $37,800

Move your SharePoint data to Azure Blob Storage and save at least 50% with ShArc

Including server costs, storage costs and the costs for ShArc you pay $16,618 SharePoint storage costs when storing your data smart and cost-effective in Azure Blob Storage. With our tool ShArc you can keep your data in Microsoft and automatically transfer data from SharePoint Online to Azure. On our pricing page you can see a complete calculation example.

Start now if you need:

Reduced storage costs

Benefit from the low priced storage space in Azure Blob Storage. Minimize your SharePoint costs.

Extended storage

Never run out of SharePoint storage. Ensure scalability of your storage capacities.

Seamless integration

Set up in minutes. Integrate Azure Blob Storage with SharePoint and define your archiving rules.

Advanced security

Keep your data safe in trusted systems—in compliance with policies. For your security we use APIs like graph.

Higher productivity

Focus on important tasks. No more worries about limited storage capacities or data access.

Smooth access

Let users restore and access data as usual via SharePoint, OneDrive or Teams. The usability remains as simple as before.

Features

✓ Automatic archiving: set up archiving rules for your data, based on size, last access and more

✓ Simple configuration: set up and configure archiving rules and policy management in minutes

✓ Intuitive dashboard: keep an eye on storage limits, react early and provide the necessary storage capacities

✓ High security: your data stay in the Microsoft environment, based on your security policies

✓ Smart reporting: keep an eye on your data and create your reports with one click

✓ Direct user access: let users restore archived data through familiar SharePoint interface with one click

✓ Automated notifications: get information about successful offloads or issues in real time through Azure Alerts

What ShArc offers compared to other providers

ShArc

AvePoint Opus

Microsoft Archive

1 click restore through SharePoint user

Save 50% compared to SharePoint extra storage

Offload whole sites and libraries

Offload files and folders

100% data sovereignty with the customer

Usage based pricing

Benefit from our expertise

More than 3,200 companies around the world trust us and our products. We are the market leading provider for integration and synchronization software since 1991 and a certified Microsoft Modern Work Solution Partner with 4.5 stars on Capterra, Software Advise and GetApp.

Microsoft Modern Work Solution Partner

More than 750.000+ active users

Since 1991

Made in Hamburg, Germany

Frequently asked questions

Here we answer the most frequently asked questions about ShArc.

What is the primary use case for ShArc? ShArc is designed to reduce SharePoint Online storage costs by offloading infrequently used or large files to Azure Blob Storage. These files remain visible and accessible in SharePoint and can be restored on a file level by end users when needed, while no longer consuming expensive SharePoint storage. This allows organizations to significantly lower ongoing storage costs without impacting user workflows.

How much cost savings can be expected with ShArc? In most environments, 60 to 80 percent of SharePoint data qualifies as cold data. Customers typically achieve average storage cost reductions of around 60 percent, with higher savings possible depending on data volume, growth rate, and the configured minimum file age and minimum file size used for offloading.

Can end users still access files after they have been offloaded? Yes. Offloaded files remain visible in SharePoint and can be restored by end users using the one-click retrieval feature. From a user perspective, the file behaves like a normal SharePoint file and can be accessed without additional tools or training.

Does Layer2 have access to customer data stored by ShArc? No. Layer2 does not have access to customer files or content. All data remains within the customer’s tenant and Azure subscription. Only limited telemetry information, such as offload and restore statistics, is collected for operational and product improvement purposes.

Is there a limit to how much data ShArc can offload? There is no hard limit on the amount of data that can be offloaded with ShArc. Offloading large volumes of data is supported and primarily limited by SharePoint and Azure throughput, meaning larger datasets may require more time to complete.

Can offloaded files still be found via search or used by Copilot? Metadata such as file name, properties, and custom columns remain searchable in SharePoint. However, the file content itself is not indexed while the file is stored in Azure Blob Storage, meaning full-text search and Copilot content analysis are currently limited to metadata only. Further options in this area are being evaluated for future releases.

Reduce SharePoint extra storage costs by 50%

Trusted by IT-Consultants and SharePoint Admins around the world

Rapidly increasing storage costs

Meet ShArc—and optimize your SharePoint storage costs

Your free product demo

Your storage costs per year

Move your SharePoint data to Azure Blob Storage and save at least 50% with ShArc

Start now if you need:

Features

How our tool works

What ShArc offers compared to other providers

What ShArc offers compared to other providers

Benefit from our expertise

Interested in Saving Costs?

Request Sharc now for a full evaluation.

Frequently asked questions