There are significant limitations and deficiencies with this approach which make it inadvisable. These include: 

  1. Backups capture data at specific points in time, so cannot ensure a 100-percent complete and accurate record of all data. 
  2. Retention policies within backups do not provide the granular level of control over data retention needed to meet more complex compliance requirements. 
  3. Backups do not provide full text and multilevel search, tagging, and export capabilities, which maybe critical for compliance with e-discovery requests. 
  4. The point-in-time revisions stored by backup solutions contain multiple versions of data items, which must be reconciled to produce a single set of accurate and verifiable results for e-discovery. 
  5. Backup solutions typically do not provide direct access for end users to search and retrieve historical data, or allow them to restore individual items without involving IT.