Patent ID: 8055937

Claim:
A process for virtualization of a protected system P comprising: a cyclical replication process comprising, in sequence: creating a consistent point-in-time snapshot of a protected system at a time t, creating a content manifest of the snapshot M t (P), the content manifest comprising metadata including modification times and security mechanisms for the snapshot, generating a delta manifest D t t-1 (P) comprising a set of information needed to transition between M t (P) and M t-1 (P), wherein the set of information is sufficient to enable deriving M t-1 (P) from M t (P), transmitting the delta manifest D t t-1 (P) to a repository; and enabling access to the point-in-time snapshot and the delta manifest D t t-1 (P) in order to create an operable image of the protected system P in a virtual machine distinct from the protected system P.