An information management system according to certain aspects configured to implement VM backup and replication operations that reduce the amount of resources and the cost typically associated with such operations. The system can initiate backups of VM data (e.g., persistent data or data written to a virtual disk, such as application data, data saved by an application running on the VM, etc.) and VM memory (e.g., non-persistent data) of a VM. The system can convert the VM data into another format before storage in a secondary storage device occurs. Rather than replicating the VM based on data provided by the production client device, the information management system can initiate VM replication using the backup stored in the secondary storage device. The backup data can be converted into a format associated with the hypervisor that is to run the VM on the target client device before replication to the target client device occurs.