Patent ID: 7243103

Claim:
A distributed network storage system including; a plurality of file storage nodes that are distributed on and communicate peer-to-peer over the network; a storage coordinator that manages file storage on the plurality of file storage nodes, the storage coordinator designating selected groups of nodes within the plurality of file storage nodes and directing the nodes in a given group to communicate peer-to-peer to replicate associated group files; a lexical recovery sub-system for directing the file storage nodes to maintain versions of selected files as part of the group files; the storage coordinator creating different types of storage lockers for files associated with different access policies and providing to the lexical recovery sub-system policies relating to the maintaining of versions of files in the different types of storage lockers; the lexical recovery sub-system directing the file storage nodes to maintain versions of the files in accordance with the policies provided through the storage coordinator; the file storage nodes indexing the versions of the files and replicating the index as part of the group files; and the storage coordinator further directing searches across the group files using the indexes.