Systems and methods for efficient backup restoration

1. A computer-implemented method for restoring a computing device, comprising:

emulating a virtual disk using a backup of the computing device;

generating an ancillary virtual machine (VM);

determining and writing, to a delta disk linked to the virtual disk, configuration modifications to the ancillary VM that enable booting of the ancillary VM using the virtual disk on a different device with dissimilar hardware as the computing device;

responsive to receiving a request to perform recovery of the computing device, restoring the backup by:

creating on the different device a recovery virtual machine (VM) having a base virtual disk emulated from the backup; and

modifying the recovery VM by attaching the delta disk having the configuration modifications.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ancillary VM is given read-only access to the virtual disk and write access to the delta disk.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising deleting the generated ancillary VM when writing the configuration modifications on the delta disk is complete.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the backup comprises a protected application, and wherein the configuration modifications enable execution of the protected application on the different device.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising executing the protected application on the recovery VM.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the recovery VM by attaching the delta disk further comprises:

creating a delta disk chain comprising the base virtual disk of the recovery VM as a parent disk, and the delta disk as a child disk of the base virtual disk.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the delta disk is generated by a restore preparation process, further comprising prior to receiving the request to perform the recovery of the computing device, saving the delta disk to a data store.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the restore-preparation process is performed by background processing that is off-site from a backup system that created the backup of the computing device.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the restore-preparation process comprises a dissimilar hardware restoration process configured to reconcile at least one difference between hardware of the computing device and virtual hardware of the ancillary VM.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the restore-preparation process modifies at least one device driver in the virtual disk of the ancillary VM associated with the backup.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the delta disk associated with the backup occupies less storage space than a virtual disk file associated with a virtual machine converted from the backup.

12. A system for restoring a computing system, comprising:

a storage device, and

a hardware processor configured to:

emulate a virtual disk using a backup of the computing device;

generate an ancillary virtual machine (VM);

determine and write, to a delta disk linked to the virtual disk, configuration modifications to the ancillary VM that enable booting of the ancillary VM using the virtual disk on a different device with dissimilar hardware as the computing device;

responsive to receiving a request to perform recovery of the computing device, restore the backup by:

creating on the different device a recovery virtual machine (VM) having a base virtual disk emulated from the backup; and

modifying the recovery VM by attaching the delta disk having the configuration modifications.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the ancillary VM is given read-only access to the virtual disk and write access to the delta disk.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the hardware processor is further configured to delete the generated ancillary VM when writing the configuration modifications on the delta disk is complete.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the backup comprises a protected application, and wherein the configuration modifications enable execution of the protected application on the different device.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the hardware processor is further configured to execute the protected application on the recovery VM.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the hardware processor is further configured to modify the recovery VM by attaching the delta disk by:

creating a delta disk chain comprising the base virtual disk of the recovery VM as a parent disk, and the delta disk as a child disk of the base virtual disk.

18. The system of claim 12 , wherein the delta disk is generated by a restore preparation process, wherein the hardware processor is further configured to, prior to receiving the request to perform the recovery of the computing device, save the delta disk to a data store.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the restore-preparation process 1 s performed by background processing that is off-site from a backup system that created the backup of the computing device.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions for restoring a computing device, including instructions for:

emulating a virtual disk using a backup of the computing device;

generating an ancillary virtual machine (VM);

determining and writing, to a delta disk linked to the virtual disk, configuration modifications to the ancillary VM that enable booting of the ancillary VM using the virtual disk on a different device with dissimilar hardware as the computing device;

responsive to receiving a request to perform recovery of the computing device, restoring the backup by:

creating on the different device a recovery virtual machine (VM) having a base virtual disk emulated from the backup; and

modifying the recovery VM by attaching the delta disk having the configuration modifications.