Patent ID: 7653915

Claim:
A method for storing data comprising: providing an application-specific module, wherein the application-specific module communicates with an application; providing a storage-specific module, wherein the storage-specific module communicates with a storage; and providing a common interface, wherein: the common interface communicates with the application-specific module and the storage-specific module; the application-specific module acts as an intermediary between the application and the common interface, wherein the application-specific module comprises functions needed to backup data for a particular application, and the common interface comprises non-application-specific functions commonly used by a plurality of applications; the storage-specific module acts as an intermediary between the storage and the common interface, wherein the storage-specific module comprises functions for a particular storage, the common interface comprises non-storage-specific functions that can be used to take a snapshot, and the snapshot includes data and information at a given point in time; and the application-specific module, the common interface, and the storage-specific module are configured to cooperate to back up application data.