Patent ID: 8281091

Claim:
A data backup method in a storage system, the method comprising: defining one or more parameters for a plurality of storage volumes in the storage system such that values of said parameters are used to determine how to best choose a backup target volume for at least one of said plurality of storage volumes, such that the target volume meets one or more objectives that satisfy user preferences for backing up the data stored on the at least one of said plurality of storage volumes; dynamically collecting information related to the parameters while the storage volumes are used, wherein said information is collected prior to receiving a backup request; receiving a request to backup a first source volume in the storage system; and selecting or creating the target volume based on the collected information, wherein the target volume meets the one or more objectives that satisfy the user preference in an optimum manner, and wherein the one or more objectives are not exclusively related to maximizing speed of the requested backup process, and depending on priority assigned to said one or more objectives the target volume is selected to satisfy a maximum number of the user preferences, wherein the target volume is provisioned as a space efficient (SE) volume, in response to determining that read-to-write ratio for the at least one of said plurality of storage volumes is higher than a threshold.