Patent ID: 7343356

Claim:
A method for calculating data costing in a network comprising a storage operation cell hierarchy, the method comprising: storing, in a database, storage cost data associated with one or more storage operation cells in the network, wherein the storage cost data indicates a cost of using a logical unit of storage space in a physical storage resource in the network for a unit of time; identifying at least one physical storage resource on the network; collecting usage data for the at least one physical storage resource through the storage operation cell hierarchy via a storage manager component of a corresponding storage operation cell, wherein the storage operation cell hierarchy comprises a plurality of hierarchically organized storage operation cells each comprising a data agent component of a client computer for communicating with a physical data storage resource, a media agent component for communicating with another physical data storage resource, and a storage manager component for managing the data agent component and the media agent component; calculating a storage cost for the identified at least one physical storage resource based on the associated storage cost data and the usage data; and apportioning the calculated storage cost among a plurality of departments having access to the identified at least one physical storage resource, wherein the storage cost is a financial value.