There is no single best cloud data security provider, because the phrase covers four different purchases. Recovery platforms restore your data, data security platforms find and control sensitive information, access platforms govern who connects, and cloud workload tools protect what you deploy. UK buyers get the best result by shortlisting per job, then asking each supplier for a written GBP quote.
Which cloud data security provider is best for a UK business?
The honest answer depends on the failure you most need to prevent. A firm worried about ransomware needs a different product from a firm worried about staff over-sharing files in Microsoft 365.
Start with a one-line statement of the outcome you need, such as "restore payroll within four hours" or "know where every customer record sits". Then match it to a category. That keeps a procurement from comparing products that were never built to do the same thing.
Analyst reports help, but only inside their own scope. Forrester's Data Security Platforms Wave for the first quarter of 2025 rates data security platforms. It does not rate backup, network access or cloud workload tools.
What do the independent ratings say about data security platforms?
Forrester places Varonis and Google in the Leaders group of its Q1 2025 Wave. Thales, IBM, Microsoft, Forcepoint and OpenText are Strong Performers. Trellix, Broadcom and Proofpoint are Contenders.
Forrester describes the Wave as a starting point only and encourages clients to adapt the findings to their own priorities. A Strong Performer can still be the right buy if it fits an estate you already run.
For firms built around Microsoft 365, the sensible question is how much of the job existing licences already cover. Check that before paying for a separate platform.
How do the main recovery platforms compare?
Recovery is the category most buyers mean when they ask about cyber resilience. Rubrik, Commvault, Veeam and Cohesity are the names that appear on most enterprise shortlists.
On analyst standing, Commvault announced that it ranked highest in five of six use cases in the 2025 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Backup and Data Protection Platforms. That is a vendor-reported result for a dated report. It supports including Commvault in an enterprise evaluation, and it says nothing about how any product performs on your own workloads.
The better test is a live exercise. Ask every finalist to recover the same application from a suspected contaminated recovery point, with production credentials unavailable. Compare how long it takes, who has to approve each step and what it costs.
What does it cost in pounds?
Microsoft publishes UK list prices, so it is the one major vendor where a real comparison is possible. Microsoft's UK enterprise plans page lists these prices per user per month, paid yearly, excluding VAT, checked on 5 November 2026.
| Product | Price per user per month |
|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 E3 | £33.50 |
| Microsoft 365 E5 | £51.60 |
| Microsoft 365 E7 | £81.60 |
| Microsoft Purview Suite add-on | £9.20 |
| Microsoft Defender Suite add-on | £9.20 |
Microsoft add-on and suite list prices in the UK
List price per user per month, paid yearly, excluding VAT, checked on 5 November 2026.
View the data
| Category | £ per user per month |
|---|---|
| Purview Suite add-on | £9.20 |
| Defender Suite add-on | £9.20 |
| Microsoft 365 E3 | £33.50 |
| Microsoft 365 E5 | £51.60 |
| Microsoft 365 E7 | £81.60 |
The Purview Suite and Defender Suite add-ons both require Microsoft 365 E3, or Office 365 E3 plus Enterprise Mobility + Security E3. Microsoft notes that prices may vary with your agreement, so treat these as list prices rather than a quote.
For other suppliers, we did not find a comparable public GBP tariff on the vendor pages we reviewed. Ask for a quote that names the plan, the user band, the term, the storage included and the tax treatment. A quote-only price is a commercial choice and says nothing about the quality of the product.
What do UK rules expect from your cloud security?
The ICO expects appropriate technical and organisational security for the personal data you process. Using a cloud provider does not move that responsibility away from you.
Some firms also face incident reporting duties. Under the NIS Regulations, relevant digital service providers must tell the ICO about a significant incident without undue delay and not later than 72 hours of becoming aware of it. The ICO sets thresholds, including service unavailability of more than 750,000 user-hours, a loss of integrity, authenticity or confidentiality affecting more than 15,000 UK users, or material damage to a UK user above £850,000.
Check whether these duties apply to you before you rely on them. Document which controls each supplier operates, how access is restored after an incident, and how you test it.
What does a real recovery look like?
NHS England reported on the recovery from the June 2024 cyber attack on a pathology services provider in south east London. It said 10,152 acute outpatient appointments and 1,710 elective procedures were postponed at the two most affected trusts.
The lesson for buyers is practical. Restoring data and restoring a working service are separate goals, and the second depends on identity, networks, applications and people. Write your recovery targets per important service, then test the dependencies you need to meet them.
How should a UK firm choose?
Use a short, repeatable process.
- List your three most important services and how long you can be without each.
- Decide which category of tool addresses each risk.
- Shortlist two or three suppliers per category from independent evidence.
- Request a GBP quote with every module named.
- Run the same recovery or access test with each finalist and compare the results.
Re-run the process each renewal. Product scope and pricing change often, and so do the analyst reports.
Sources
- Forrester, The Forrester Wave Data Security Platforms Q1 2025
- Microsoft, Microsoft 365 Security Enterprise Plans, UK pricing, checked 5 November 2026
- Commvault, Gartner Critical Capabilities announcement, 2025
- ICO, NIS incident reporting
- NHS England London, Almost all services back on track, 4 October 2024
