Patent ID: 7509423

Claim:
A method of locating potentially identical objects across multiple computers based on stochastic partitioning of workload, the method comprising: generating object information by an information generation unit of a computing device, the object information being identified as an imprint by a pre-calculated number of bits of object information; selecting, by the information generation unit of a computing device, for each of a plurality of objects stored on a plurality of computers in a network, an imprint corresponding to the object; using a stochastic partitioning process by a forwarding location determination unit of a computing device to identify which of the plurality of computers to communicate the object information to for identification of potentially identical objects on the plurality of computers, the stochastic partitioning process comprising: comparing, for each of the plurality of computers, the imprint to a portion of a computer identifier associated with the computer; identifying which of the computer identifiers have portions matching the imprint; and communicating the object information to each of the computers associated with a computer identifier having a portion matching the imprint.