Patent ID: 8244681

Claim:
A system comprising: a first backup computer system; a second backup computer system; and a third backup computer system, wherein the first backup computer system and the second backup computer system are both coupled to the third backup computer system; wherein the first backup computer system is configured to: create a full backup image of a first data volume stored on a first client computer system coupled to the first backup computer system, wherein the full backup image of the first data volume includes backup data received from the first client computer system; create a plurality of incremental backup images of the first data volume stored on the first client computer system, wherein each of the incremental backup images of the first data volume includes backup data received from the first client computer system; create a first synthetic backup image from the full backup image of the first data volume and the plurality of incremental backup images of the first data volume; wherein the second backup computer system is configured to: create a full backup image of a second data volume stored on a second client computer system coupled to the second backup computer system, wherein the full backup image of the second data volume includes backup data received from the second client computer system; create a plurality of incremental backup images of the second data volume stored on the second client computer system, wherein each of the incremental backup images of the second data volume includes backup data received from the second client computer system; create a second synthetic backup image from the full backup image of the second data volume and the plurality of incremental backup images of the second data volume; wherein the third backup computer system is configured to: create a third synthetic backup image from the full backup image of the first data volume and the plurality of incremental backup images of the first data volume, wherein the third backup computer system is configured to initiate creation of the third synthetic backup image after copying the full backup image of the first data volume from the first backup computer system and without first copying the plurality of incremental backup images of the first data volume from the first backup computer system, wherein the plurality of incremental backup images includes a first incremental backup image that includes first data needed for creating the third synthetic backup image and second data not needed for creating the third synthetic backup image, wherein the third backup computer system is configured to communicate with the first backup computer system via a network during the creation of the third synthetic backup image to retrieve the first data from the first incremental backup image without retrieving the second data from the incremental backup image; and create a fourth synthetic backup image from the full backup image of the second data volume and the plurality of incremental backup images of the second data volume.