Microsoft has extended the support of Azure Backup to reach Windows Server 2008 64-bit operating systems.
Initially only supporting Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Sever 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2, the Azure Backup platform now allows backup for on-premises Windows Server 2008 servers.
Writing on the Microsoft Azure blog, Giridhar Mosay, Program Manager for Cloud and Enterprise, said: Azure Backup is growing rapidly into double digits month over month for the reliable backup service it provides to Windows Servers.
"Based on the overwhelming ask to support for Windows Server 2008, Azure Backup now extends the service to protect Windows Server 2008 64-bit operating systems as well."
Azure Backup also allows seamless integration with the System Center Data Protection Manager to provide application aware backups from Windows Server 2008.
Azure has also turned on DRaaS (disaster recovery as a service) to the Azure cloud, dubbed Azure Site Recovery. Microsoft Azure Site Recovery automatically replicated virtual machines according to user-set policies.
Abhishek Hemrajani, another Azure program manager, said: "Our customers are experiencing first-hand, ASR’s ability to consistently replicate, protect, and seamlessly failover virtual machines directly to Microsoft Azure. Our promise – No Workload Left Behind – is beginning to deliver value to our Enterprise and SME customers as they start realizing the benefits of saving precious CAPEX and OPEX that would earlier be spent in building and supporting secondary datacenters for DR."
Azure Site Recovery not only enables disaster recovery to Azure, but also allow users to effectively migrate VMs to Azure if the user is already virtualised on Windows Server 2012 R2.
In other Microsoft Azure news, the cloud platform has been given approval by the Australian government, meeting the criteria for security requirements.
Azure underwent a four-month assessment to make sure it is suitable to be rolled out by the end of 2014.
Microsoft Australia security advisor James Kavanagh said that the approval is one of the "last milestones" for Microsoft before Azure is released for general availability in the country.
He said: "There are certainly a lot of focus across commercial enterprises, as well as federal and state government around what is the appropriate evidence we can provide to them to actually back up the claims we make around secure processes we have."
