Patent ID: 8504787

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of determining storage requirements for data protection, the method comprising: receiving a first size of a first data area for which data protection is performed, wherein data obtained as a result of performing a data protection process for the first data area is stored in a data protection area; receiving a retention time representing an amount of time data obtained as a result of performing the data protection process is retained; receiving a rate of change representing a rate at which data in the first data area changes; determining a first value based on said first size, said retention time, and said rate of change, said first value representing a calculated size of the data protection area; allocating storage for the data protection area having a size of said first value; adjusting the size of the data protection area in response to an occurrence of a trigger event, wherein the first value indicating the size of the data protection area represents a total amount of storage in the data protection area thereby including both currently consumed storage of the data protection area and available storage of the data protection area; and wherein, in response to said occurrence of the trigger event, first processing is performed including: repeating said determining step and obtaining an updated version of said first value based on current values for said first size, said retention time and said rate of change; determining whether the updated version of the first value is less than said first value; an if the updated version of the first value is significantly more than the first value, increasing the size of the data protection area to be more than the first value.