Patent ID: 8280926

Claim:
A computerized method for classifying data from a backup application for de-duplication of redundant data based on one or more characteristics of the data, the method comprising: receiving, by a computing device, a backup data object from a backup application, wherein the backup application created the backup data object, and a data object characteristic of the backup data object is not known to the computing device; determining the data object characteristic of the backup data object based on metadata associated with the backup data object; selecting a de-duplication domain from a plurality of de-duplication domains based at least in part on the data object characteristic of the backup data object, wherein each de-duplication domain from the plurality of de-duplication domains is associated with: a data object characteristic that defines a data object type; a de-duplication method selected from a plurality of de-duplication methods that is tailored to de-duplicate redundant data among backup data objects of the data object type, wherein backup data objects of the data object type have redundant data because they share the same data object characteristic; and a data object type that is different than each data object type associated with the remaining de-duplication domains from the plurality of de-duplication domains; and directing the backup data object to the selected de-duplication domain for de-duplication, wherein the selected de-duplication domain executes the de-duplication method that is associated with the selected de-duplication domain to de-duplicate redundant data among the backup data object, and one or more other backup data objects also directed to the selected de-duplication domain, based on the data object characteristic associated with the selected de-duplication domain.