Open source backup and recovery software Zmanda today announced ZCloud, an open API that should simplify the development of backup-to-cloud applications by providing am interface for storage cloud and backup software vendors.

“Storage clouds represent a radical shift in secondary and tertiary storage. With increasing Internet bandwidth and economies of scale of storage cloud vendors, IT managers will realize dramatic cost and complexity reduction for their off-site backup needs,” said Chander Kant, chief executive officer, Zmanda. “By normalizing the idiosyncrasies of specific clouds, ZCloud enables a vibrant ecosystem needed to serve this growing demand.”

By enabling this API, a storage cloud immediately becomes a potential destination of ever-growing eco-system of backup-to-cloud applications. The storage cloud vendor does not need to worry about specifics of backup and recovery process. Instead they can continue to focus on scalability and robustness of their core offering.