Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and processes to perform replication between heterogeneous storage systems. In one embodiment, a request to perform a replication operation is sent by a target server to a source server, where the target server and the source server use different protocols to store data. A plurality of instructions, which are associated with a replication stream, are received from the source server by the target server, where the plurality of instructions comprise an include instruction to include existing data and a write instruction to write new data. A replication stream, which is associated with a backup stream stored on the source server, is also received from the source server, where the replication stream and the backup stream share a common format. The target server synthesizes a new replicated backup image, where the synthesizing comprises performing the include instruction and the write instruction on the replication stream.