We’ve started a new sample code project called Cloud Backup on CodePlex. In summary, the project will allow you to backup and restore large files such as Hyper-V virtual machines to and from Windows Azure.

Although I’ve written on this subject before, I wanted to reiterate the rationale for pursuing this particular project.

There’s a compelling argument to be made that disaster recovery will be the cloud computing killer app/scenario. And it’s not about waiting for bandwidth or speed issues to be solved first. It’s a question of, “are you connected or not?”

I’d like to see the industry in a situation where the small business software platform, whether it’s the next SBS or the next XP or even something browser based, has built-in opt-out offsite archival. And the primary scenario isn’t, “oops, I accidentally deleted my QuickBooks file,” although it should support that, too. Instead, the scenario is “oops, the building burned to the ground.”

Yes, there are small businesses that wouldn’t be able to survive that in any case. But there are also plenty for which such a feature would mean the difference between re-opening and not.

One necessary building block of this is hardware virtualization. In the recovery scenario above, I shouldn’t have to figure out how to rebuild and reinstall those computers, and then figure out how to restore my data files. Instead, I should be able to pick-up a low-end computer from Best Buy, click a button, and presto, my old server is back.

“Presto” is a qualitative term – but that’s the key point here. It doesn’t matter that I have to wait two days, or more, for that saved server image to download. All that matters is that I know it’ll work. The alternative was game over.

There are security considerations in making this a reality. Not to mention the fact that small businesses are unlikely to want to pay for this capability until it’s too late. But that’s why it should be built into the platform, where everyone can pay a few pennies for it. Again, the internet isn’t a bottleneck, and the technology is ready.

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