1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions adapted to be executed by a processor associated with a local file system to: create and send to a cloud-based storage a first XML-based data structure corresponding to a first version of the local file system, wherein the first XML-based data structure corresponds to a complete copy of the first version of the local file system at a first point-in-time; and create and send to the cloud-based storage a second XML-based data structure corresponding to a complete copy of the second version of the local file system at a second point-in-time; wherein each of the first and second XML-based data structures is self-contained in that it includes or points to all data structures and data needed to reconstruct the local file system at a point-in-time.