Patent ID: 8019727

Claim:
A computer-accessible storage medium storing program instructions executable to implement: a first data center receiving a file and storing a first copy of the file; the first data center determining that a second copy of the file should be created at a second data center; the first data center sending information regarding the file to the second data center; in response to receiving the information regarding the file, the second data center writing information into a database at the second data center, wherein the information written to the database indicates that the file has not yet been created at the second data center and needs to be transmitted to the second data center to create the second copy of the file; after the information has been written into the database at the second data center, a software application at the second data center requesting to access the file; in response to the request from the software application: the second data center using the information written to the database at the second data center to determine that the first copy of the file is stored at the first data center, and the second data center communicating with the first data center to remotely access the first copy of the file stored at the first data center to satisfy the request received from the software application; and the second data center initiating a transfer operation to transmit the file to the second data center to create the second copy of the file.