Mary Jo Foley, from ZDNet reports that Microsoft has released an updated preview of its Software as a Service (SaaS) backup solution allowing customers to backup an restore server data from Windows Azure. The product called Windows Azure Online Backup was released in beta in March this year and is now updated.
This product is part of a growing portolio of SaaS infrastructure management products running from its own Public Cloud, Azure, which will integrate with the on-premise System Center tools. Other products are Windows Intune providing similar functionality compared to System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and System Center Advisor providing some monitoring functionality also provided by System Center Opertions Manager (SCOM).
Windows Azure Online Backup offers block-level incremental backup, data compression, encryption, throttling, data integrity and other features, and will support Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server Essentials 2012. The product will also support and work with System Center 2011 Data Protection Manager (DPM) the on-premise backup solution part of the System Center suite, for which Service Pack 1 is expected in early 2013. More details about Windows Azure Online Backup can be found in a blogpost on the Server & Cloud blog.