Last week Microsoft announced new features for its Azure Backup solution. Azure Backup is a Microsoft solution which protects files and folders by providing multiple copies in multiple geographies. It integrates seamlessly with System Center Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) in order to protect Microsoft workloads. It can also perform online backups of Windows and Linux IaaS VMs, a functionality which is now in technical preview.
Microsoft also announced that it now supports VMware between two on-premises VMware sites using InMage Scout and physical server workloads using Azure as the disaster recovery site for Azure Site Recovery Service (ASR).
InMage Scout is a recent Microsoft acquisition (July 2014) that provides real-time replication functionality. Right now InMage is available as a separate product that’s obtained via a subscription to the Azure Site Recovery service. It provides replication of virtual machines running VMware on a primary site to virtual machines running on another VMware server in a secondary site.
Update: Microsoft reached out to cloudcomputing.info to explain that the site-to-site DR using Azure Site Recovery was already available in a technical preview in July 2014, as detailed in this blog post. What Microsoft announced last week is the ability to do a DR from a VMware Site towards Microsoft Azure.