What Is Google Vault and How Does It Work? An In-Depth Guide

Google Vault is a powerful eDiscovery tool provided by Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) that enables businesses to manage, retain, search, and export data for compliance and governance purposes.

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While often misunderstood as a backup solution, Google Vault is primarily designed to retain data and support legal teams with eDiscovery processes and information governance rather than to recover data or serve as a built-in restore feature.

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In this article, we will explore what Google Vault is, how it works, Google Vault's features, pricing, and how to use it. We’ll also discuss why Google Vault is not a backup solution and how a dedicated service like Backup.Space can provide more comprehensive data protection.

What is Google Vault?

Google Vault is a cloud-based eDiscovery and data management tool available as part of select Google Workspace plans. It allows businesses to retain data, including emails, Google Drive files, Gmail messages, Google Meet recordings, and Google Workspace text messages.

Vault data can be managed through custom retention rules, helping organizations meet regulatory compliance and data retention obligations. It is a valuable tool for industries like healthcare, finance, and legal services that handle sensitive data.

With Google Vault, organizations can:

• Retain data across Google Workspace services, including Google Docs, Gmail messages, Google Meet, Google Groups messages, and Google Drive.
• Create custom retention rules or apply default retention rules to meet specific requirements.
• Search for Google Workspace data using advanced search functionality, such as keywords, date range, and specific user accounts.
• Export data, including archived data, for further analysis or legal documentation in mbox format or other compatible formats.
• Preserve data indefinitely through legal holds, ensuring that critical data is not permanently deleted even if retention rules expire.

Vault supports data retention and export across Google Workspace Business, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise Standard plans, making it suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises.

How does Google Vault work?

Google Vault operates directly on the user’s data within the Google Workspace environment. It doesn’t create separate copies of data but instead relies on retention rules and legal holds to retain data and prevent accidental deletion.

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When you enforce policies for retention are in place, Vault data, such as Google Groups messages and associated chat, can be searched, managed, and exported as needed.

Key features of Google Vault

Vault users can benefit from:

1. Retention policies:
   • Administrators can create retention rules to archive data or retain data for a specified retention period.
   • Default retention rules apply to all accounts unless custom retention rules are set.
   • Retention timelines and policies ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

1. eDiscovery tool:
   • Google Vault allows legal teams to search and export data for investigations, audits, and legal proceedings.
   • Advanced search functionality enables searching by user accounts, date range, keywords, and Google Workspace services.
2. Legal holds:
   • Important data can be preserved indefinitely for specific users or accounts under investigation.
   • Legal holds override retention rules, ensuring data is not removed until the hold is lifted.
3. Export data:
   • Data in Google Workspace, such as emails, Google Docs, and Google Meet recordings, can be exported in its original structure for further analysis.
   • When you are exporting data, it will be saved in secure formats like mbox, supporting easy review by legal teams.
4. Audit reports:
   • Vault allows you to track user activity and admin console actions, providing transparency in the eDiscovery process.

Limitations of Google Vault

Users should bear in mind that Vault lacks:

• Data restore: Google Vault does not have a restore feature to recover data that has been permanently deleted outside of your policies for retention.
• Auto-save: It relies solely on proactive retention rules and legal holds, meaning accidental deletion of unsaved data cannot be reversed.
• Cost efficiency: Vault licenses must be purchased for specific users, adding costs for small businesses with limited budgets.
• De-duplication: When many Workspace accounts have access to the same items, it results in lots of duplicated data. Google Vault doesn't have any way to de-duplicate it before exporting data.
• Parallel and automated exports: Google Vault isn't designed as a backup tool and does not support high volumes. You can't schedule your exports or run two tasks at the same time.

How to use Google Vault

To get started with Google Vault, you’ll need an active Vault license included in your Google Workspace plan. Here’s how to use this valuable tool:

1. Access Google Vault:
   • Go to Google Vault and sign in with your Google Workspace admin console credentials.
2. Set up retention policies:
   • Navigate to the retention section and create rules to retain data or archive data based on retention obligations.
   • Use custom retention rules to specify data types, accounts, and retention periods.
3. Perform an eDiscovery search:
   • Search for data across Google Workspace services, including Google Drive and Gmail messages.
   • Apply filters like date range, keywords, or user activity to narrow down search results.
4. Place legal holds:
   • To preserve data indefinitely, apply a legal hold to individual users or accounts under investigation.
5. Export data:
   • Exported data can be downloaded securely for further analysis, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
6. Monitor user activity:
   • Use audit reports to track actions taken within Vault, ensuring transparency and accountability.

Google Vault pricing

Google Vault is included in the following Google Workspace plans:

• Business Plus ($18/user/month)
• Enterprise Essentials (custom priced)
• Enterprise Standard (custom priced)
• Enterprise Plus (custom priced)

For organizations using other Google Workspace plans, such as Business Starter, Vault licenses can be purchased as an add-on starting at $5/user/month. Your final pricing will depend on the number of users and the level of functionality required. Contact Google Workspace sales for details tailored to your business needs.

Why Google Vault is not a backup solution

While Google Vault is a valuable tool for managing data retention, regulatory compliance, and eDiscovery, it is not a replacement for dedicated backup solutions. Here’s why:

1. No built-in restore feature

Google Vault’s retention settings do not allow for point-in-time restores of data. Once data is permanently deleted outside of a retention rule, it cannot be recovered.

2. Limited data protection

Vault relies on retention rules and legal holds to preserve data, leaving gaps for accidental loss of unsaved data.

3. Lack of offline backups

Vault does not create redundant copies of data or allow offline storage, increasing the risk of data loss. This goes against the 3-2-1 cardinal rule of good backup policies.

4. Designed for compliance, not backup

Vault is suitable for data governance but lacks the functionality required for comprehensive backup solutions. In fact, this is what Google has to say about this:

5. Vault retention rules expire

Data may be removed when retention rules expire, making it unsuitable for long-term data protection. If you're using it for backup, you will have to separately track all your retention rules or risk losing data.

Backup Space: The Ultimate Backup Solution for Google Workspace

Unlike Google Vault, Backup.Space is designed specifically for reliable and comprehensive data backup and recovery. Here’s how we can help you protect your data.

Key Features of Backup Space

Users can gain from: 

• Automated backups: Backup.Space automatically creates regular backups of your Google Workspace data, including Gmail, Google Drive, Contacts, and Calendar. Choose between 1X, 3X, and 24X daily backups. 
• Point-in-time restores: Recover data to any specific point in time, providing peace of mind against accidental delete actions or ransomware attacks. This feature is available in every plan. 
• Backup for all your Google Workspace services: Backup.Space can sync with Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Contacts, Chat, Site, and Directory. In comparison, Vault works with only select services; for example, it doesn't support data from Google Calendar.  
• Easy set-up: Backup.Space takes only a few minutes to configure, making powerful security both accessible and user-friendly, whether you have two team members or a hundred.  
• Bring your own key (BYOK): Users can bring and manage their own encryption key using Google Cloud KMS (Key Management Service). This adds another layer of encryption and lets you revoke access anytime. 
• Simple pricing: Our transparent pricing structure ensures you pay only for the services you use, with no hidden fees. You can choose from our free forever, $2, and $3/user/month plans.

Google Vault vs. Backup Space: Which one do you need?

Summing Up

Google Vault is a robust eDiscovery tool within the Google Workspace ecosystem, offering retention policies, legal holds, and export functionality for sensitive data. However, it is not designed to replace backup solutions.

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Organizations should rely on dedicated backup services like Backup.Space to recover data, protect against accidental or malicious loss, and ensure long-term data retention. Together, Vault and Backup.Space provide comprehensive data governance and protection for your Google Workspace user account.

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Ready to protect your Google Workspace data? Contact Backup.Space today!

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