Systems and methods for backing up data associated with storage area network (SAN) data stores connected to a backup device over a SAN such that the backup is performed without using a local area network (LAN). The systems and methods include receiving a snapshot of a virtual machine (VM), the VM being associated with a VM datastore disk, which is further associated with a unique ID. The unique ID associated with the VM datastore disk is compared with a unique ID associated with a disk available on the computing device. When the unique ID associated with the VM datastore disk matches the unique ID associated with the disk on the computing device, the disk on the computing device with the matching unique ID is opened for reading, and data from the opened disk is copied to a copy data storage pool over a storage area network.