Patent ID: 7249234

Claim:
A virtualization system, comprising: a first virtualization device having a first virtual volume related to a first logical volume of a first storage system, said first storage system having a first storage controller, a plurality of first disk drives and said first logical volume related to at least one of said first disk drives; and a second virtualization device having a second virtual volume related to a second logical volume of a second storage system, said second storage system having a second storage controller, a plurality of second disk drives and said second logical volume related to at least one of said second disk drives, wherein the first and second virtualization devices are configured to copy data between the first and second virtual volumes, the first and second virtualization devices being configured to selectively control a plurality of data copy processes between the first virtual volume and the second virtual volume, the data copy processes including a first copy process copying data between the first and second storage systems without being via the first and second virtualization devices, and a second copy process copying data between the first and second storage systems via the first and second virtualization devices.