Improving Reliability of the Windows Azure Backup Agent

Microsoft has released a new update that will improve the reliability of the offsite backup operations for System Center 2012 Data Protection Manager (DPM). The update ensures that DPM running on Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2 can backup up dependably to Windows Azure for offsite storage.

The update replaces the Windows Azure Backup agent for DPM, and the installation doesn’t require a reboot of the server.

Microsoft consistently promotes DPM-to-Windows Azure backups as a reliable offsite data protection solution, yet I've seen no indication where customers have complained about backups not being reliable. This may be an instance where Microsoft knows a problem exists, but since backups are rarely tested by organizations, they may not know about it. So, I would definitely grab this released agent upgrade and install it at first chance.

The update is available from here: Update is available that improves the reliability of offsite backup operations in the Windows Azure Backup agent