Azure Backup - Highlights

Azure Backup offers multiple components that you download and deploy on the appropriate computer, server, or in the cloud.  The following matrix from the official documentation provides a quick summary of the options & key terms (for a better view of the table, click here) -

Feature	Azure Backup (MARS) agent	System Center DPM	Azure Backup Server	Azure IaaS VM Backup
Benefits	Back up files and folders on physical or virtual Windows OS (VMs can be on-premises or in Azure) No separate backup server required.	Application-aware snapshots (VSS - Volume Snapshot Service) Full flexibility for when to take backups Recovery granularity (all) Can use Recovery Services vault Linux support on Hyper-V and VMware VMs Back up and restore VMware VMs using DPM 2012 R2	Application-aware snapshots (VSS) Full flexibility for when to take backups Recovery granularity (all) Can use Recovery Services vault Linux support on Hyper-V and VMware VMs Back up and restore VMware VMs Does not require a System Center license Microsoft Azure Backup Server version 3 (MABS V3) which is based on DPM 2016  supports Windows Server 2019 & SQL 2017	Application-aware snapshots (VSS) Native backups for Windows/Linux No specific agent installation required Fabric-level backup with no backup infrastructure needed
Limits	Backup 3x per day Not application aware; file, folder, and volume-level restore only, No support for Linux. Register upto 50 MAB agents per vault	Cannot back up Oracle workload.	Cannot back up Oracle workload. Always requires live Azure subscription No support for tape backup	Back up VMs once-a-day Restore VMs only at disk level Cannot back up on-premises
What is protected?	Files, Folders, System State	Files, Folders, Volumes, VMs, Applications, Workloads System State	Files, Folders, Volumes, VMs, Applications, Workloads, System State	VMs, All disks (using PowerShell)
Where are backups stored?	Recovery Services vault	Recovery Services vault, Locally attached disk, Tape (on-premises only)	Recovery Services vault, Locally attached disk	Recovery Services vault
Can be deployed in Azure?	Yes The Azure Backup agent can be deployed on any Windows Server VM that runs in Azure.	Yes Learn more about how to protect workloads in Azure by using System Center DPM.	Yes Learn more about how to protect workloads in Azure by using Azure Backup Server.	Yes Part of Azure fabric Specialized for backup of Azure infrastructure as a service (IaaS) virtual machines.
Can be deployed on-premises?	Yes The Backup agent can be deployed on any Windows Server VM or physical machine.	Yes Learn more about how to protect workloads and VMs in your datacenter.	Yes Learn more about how to protect workloads in Azure by using Azure Backup Server.	No Use System Center DPM to back up virtual machines in your datacenter.
Target storage supported	Recovery Services vault	Locally attached disk, Recovery Services vault, tape (on-premises only)	Locally attached disk, Recovery Services vault	Recovery Services vault
Supported on (Azure endorsed) Linux?	No ( Windows-based agent only)	File-consistent backup of Linux Guest VMs on Hyper-V and VMWare VM restore of Hyper-V and VMWare Linux Guest VMs File-consistent backup not available for Azure VMs	File-consistent backup of Linux Guest VMs on Hyper-V and VMWare VM restore of Hyper-V and VMWare Linux guest VMs File-consistent backup not available for Azure VMs	App-consistent backup using the pre-script and post-script framework File-level recovery Create a VM from a restored disk Create a VM from a recovery point.
Recovery Services vault	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Disk storage		Yes	Yes
Tape storage		Yes
Compression (in Recovery Services vault)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Incremental backup	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Disk deduplication		Partially	Partially
Network security (to Azure)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Data security (in Azure)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Network compression (to backup server)		Yes	Yes
Network compression (to Recovery Services vault)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Network protocol (to backup server)		TCP	TCP
Network protocol (to Recovery Services vault)	HTTPS	HTTPS	HTTPS	HTTPS
Backup frequency (to Recovery Services vault)	Three backups per day	Two backups per day	Two backups per day	One backup per day
Backup frequency (to disk)	Not applicable	Every 15 minutes for SQL Server Every hour for other workloads	Every 15 minutes for SQL Server Every hour for other workloads	Not applicable
Retention options	Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly	Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly	Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly	Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly
Maximum recovery points per protected instance	9999	9999	9999	9999
Maximum retention period	Depends on backup frequency	Depends on backup frequency	Depends on backup frequency	Depends on backup frequency
Recovery points on local disk	Not applicable	64 for File Servers, 448 for Application Servers	64 for File Servers, 448 for Application Servers	Not applicable
Recovery points on tape	Not applicable	Unlimited	Not applicable	Not applicable

Other key points -
* No charge for the data that is transferred.
* Provides application-consistent backups which reduce the restoration time
* Recovery Services vaults can be used for short-term and long-term data retention
* Azure Backup creates recovery points that are stored in geo-redundant recovery vaults. When you restore from a recovery point, you can restore the whole VM or just specific files.

When thinking about a backup strategy, there are two metrics that will help you formulate your plans:
1. Recovery time objective (RTO): How fast do you need to get your data back?
2. Recovery point objective (RPO): How current must the data be when restored? (In other words, how frequently must you back up? Daily? Hourly?)

Also see -
HOW TO restore Azure Virtual Machine From a Backup Snapshot