Whether you’re navigating HR issues, facing down litigation, or ensuring operational readiness in the face of uncertainty, you need to be ready to preserve your data. When the stakes are high, Legal Hold, a new feature in Backblaze Computer Backup with Enterprise Control, can help you stay ready.
Available today, Legal Hold gives administrators the power to preserve every version of a user’s backup with a single click. No extra hardware, no new software—all at the same flat-rate pricing of Backblaze Computer Backup with Enterprise Control.
Let’s dig into what Legal Hold is, its importance, and how Backblaze implements it to meet enterprise needs.
What is Legal Hold?
A legal hold, also known as a litigation hold, is a process that organizations use to preserve electronically stored information (ESI) when they face actual or anticipated litigation, audits, or investigations. It ensures that relevant data—such as emails, documents, and file backups—is not deleted, altered, or lost. Once enabled, Backblaze Computer Backup’s Legal Hold feature will preserve a user’s entire backup, including every historical version captured, with a single click.
A legal hold is typically triggered when an organization becomes aware of a legal claim or regulatory inquiry. Once in place, normal data retention policies are suspended for any affected data, ensuring it remains available for legal review.
How Backblaze Legal Hold helps you stay protected
At Backblaze, we’ve designed our Legal Hold for Computer Backup feature to be powerful, simple, and reliable. Here’s how it works:
- Instant activation: Instantly activate Legal Hold in the Enterprise Control console without additional hardware or software.
- Automated data preservation: Apply a Legal Hold to any user’s backup directly from your admin console. The backups are preserved in a fixed state, meaning no files can be altered or deleted—even by retention policies.
- Remote and silent enforcement: Legal Holds are applied remotely without disrupting the user’s work, alerting the users, or requiring their involvement. It runs silently in the background without downtime, throttling, or notifications.
- Retention beyond the device: Even if the original device is lost, stolen, or wiped, all held data remains safely stored in Backblaze.
- Secure by default: Encryption at rest and in transit with optional private key encryption available keeps data safe.
Why Legal Hold matters in 2025
In today’s landscape, Legal Hold isn’t just a “nice to have.” It’s a must-have for almost every organization:
- Rising litigation and audits: Businesses face more legal scrutiny than ever—whether it’s an employee dispute, intellectual property (IP) protection, or a customer complaint.
- Remote and hybrid workforces: With data scattered across devices and locations, you need a solution that protects endpoint backups no matter where the user is.
- Cybersecurity incidents and data loss: Legal Hold ensures that even during a ransomware attack or internal breach, copies of critical data are preserved for investigation or recovery.
- Cloud-first operations: Legal Hold needs to work where your data lives—securely in the cloud, always ready when you are.
Ready when you need it most
Now, any business using Backblaze Computer Backup with Enterprise Control can implement Legal Hold in just a few clicks—making it easier than ever to stay compliant, reduce legal risk, and prepare for the unexpected.
Already a customer? You can start using Legal Hold today. See our docs article or log in to your admin console.
Not yet on Backblaze? Reach out to our Sales team to start a free 15-day trial.
