1. A method for performing one or more storage operations in a virtual computing environment, the method comprising: receiving a request to back up a virtual machine having a guest operating system and being associated with a host server, the virtual machine associated with a virtual machine disk file locked against access from outside the virtual machine, the virtual machine disk file stored in a datastore; quiescing write requests and permitting read requests of the virtual machine disk file by one or more applications executing on the virtual machine; unlocking the virtual machine disk file for read-only access by a backup process executing outside the guest operating system of the virtual machine; unlocking the virtual machine disk file for read-write access by a hypervisor layer associated with the host server; creating, via execution of the backup process, a backup copy of the virtual machine disk file without powering down the virtual machine, the backup copy of the virtual machine disk file being created from outside the guest operating system of the virtual machine; determining whether the write requests of the one or more applications were successfully quiesced; if the write requests were not successfully quiesced, aborting or restarting the backup process; and if the write requests were successfully quiesced, locking the virtual machine disk file for normal access by the virtual machine.