Online backup of InnoDB Tables

[Mauro Marcellino]

I see that InnoDB hot backup can be used so that a running InnoDB
database can be backed up with out setting any locks. 
 
 Can any Open File backup tool  be used with MySQL InnoDB tables or does
the hotbackup product do something special that others don't?  What are
some of the things that I should be considering when looking to do an
online backup of InnoDB tables?
 
Cheers,
 
Mauro