Patent ID: 8886610

Claim:
A method executed by a computer, comprising: executing a first simulation to backup objects in a filesystem to a storage device using a first number of agents to backup the objects to multiple drives and having a first latency; reducing the first number of agents to a second number of agents; executing a second simulation to backup the objects in the filesystem to the storage device using the second number of agents and having a second latency; backing up the objects in the filesystem to the storage device with the second number of agents when the second latency is not greater than the first latency; creating a summary comprising metrics that reflect changes in the filesystem over a period of time, wherein the metrics comprise a number of the objects that were not modified between the backing up and a previous backing up; and reducing the first number of agents to the second number of agents to reduce a number of agents backing up the objects without reducing a duration of time to backup the objects.