A method of creating an application-consistent backup of virtual machine volume data at a host server in a computerized environment wherein application-consistent backup means that applications take part in the backup preparation processes, and produce snapshots that are consistent with the current state of the application, and are recoverable by the application at a later point, the host server having one or more virtual machines (120, 130) installed on one or more host volumes (110, 115), the virtual machines configured to manage one or more virtual machine volumes (123, 127, 133, 137) on the one or more host volumes, the method comprising the acts of: identifying at least one virtual machine having one or more components for writer -involved backup processes, said components comprising an appropriately configured guest requestor and at least one appropriately configured application writer corresponding to at least one application within the virtual machine; sending an instruction to the at least one virtual machine to prepare, via the at least one application writer, application-consistent virtual machine-level snapshots (155, 160) of one or more virtual machine volumes managed by the virtual machine (145, 150), wherein the one or more virtual machine volumes are managed within one or more virtual disk files (123, 127), such that each different snapshot comprises a snapshot of a virtual disk file having a virtual machine-level snapshot contained therein; identifying that snapshot operations at the at least one virtual machine have completed; after identifying that snapshot operations at the at least one virtual machine have completed, creating one or more host-level snapshots of the one or more host volumes on which the at least one virtual machine is installed; and retrieving the one or more virtual machine-level snapshots of the one or more virtual machine volumes from the one or more host-level snapshots of the one or more host volumes. identifying at least one virtual machine having one or more components for writer -involved backup processes, said components comprising an appropriately configured guest requestor and at least one appropriately configured application writer corresponding to at least one application within the virtual machine; sending an instruction to the at least one virtual machine to prepare, via the at least one application writer, application-consistent virtual machine-level snapshots (155, 160) of one or more virtual machine volumes managed by the virtual machine (145, 150), wherein the one or more virtual machine volumes are managed within one or more virtual disk files (123, 127), such that each different snapshot comprises a snapshot of a virtual disk file having a virtual machine-level snapshot contained therein; identifying that snapshot operations at the at least one virtual machine have completed; after identifying that snapshot operations at the at least one virtual machine have completed, creating one or more host-level snapshots of the one or more host volumes on which the at least one virtual machine is installed; and retrieving the one or more virtual machine-level snapshots of the one or more virtual machine volumes from the one or more host-level snapshots of the one or more host volumes.