identified by the proxy backup 208 the proxy backup 208 notifies the guest backup 210 on each virtual machine 104 to for example prepare a designated virtual machine 104 for backup p 308 in an exemplary embodiment the guest backup 210 may notify the snapshot writer 204 to prepare an application 108 for backup p 310 the snapshot writer 204 is configured to manage application data in a consistent state by for example placing the application in a temporary halt state i e by blocking or terminating operations that would alter the application data e g write operations queuing i o operations committing pending operations to disk etc preferably without terminating the application until a snapshot is taken the snapshot writer 204 may signal the snapshot provider 206 and guest backup 210 that the application 108 is prepared for backup in an exemplary embodiment the snapshot provider 206 is configured not to create a snapshot so that the process of taking a snapshot is deferred to another system component as provided in further detail below to save system resources at physical server 100 in another embodiment the snapshot provider 206 is configured to take a snapshot of the application data and the related attributes associated with the state of the virtual machine the guest backup 210 may communicate and notify the proxy backup 208 that the applications 108 are ready for backup p 312 the proxy backup 208 may communicate and notify the backup framework 118 to create a snapshot of the related application data and virtual machine 104 p 314 in accordance with one embodiment the backup framework 118 may be.