Patent ID: 7765167

Claim:
A method for calculating data costing in a network comprising a storage operation cell hierarchy, wherein the storage operation cell hierarchy includes multiple storage operation cells organized in one or more hierarchical relationships, wherein the method is performed by one or more computing systems, each computing system having a processor and memory, the method comprising: accessing primary storage usage data associated with one or more primary storage resources in the network, wherein the primary storage usage data indicates usage of the one or more primary storage resources by multiple entities having access to the one or more primary storage resources, wherein the storage operation cell hierarchy includes multiple storage operation cells organized in one or more hierarchical relationships, wherein the one or more primary storage resources are associated with one or more storage operation cells of the storage operation cell hierarchy, and wherein a storage operation cell includes— a data agent component for accessing data stored by the one or more primary storage resources; a media agent component for conveying data from the one or more primary storage resources to one or more secondary storage resources in the network; and a storage manager component for managing the data agent component and the media agent component; accessing secondary storage usage data associated with the one or more secondary storage resources in the network, wherein the secondary storage usage data is based on correlation of data stored by the one or more primary storage resources with usage of the one or more secondary storage resources; accessing primary storage cost data associated with the one or more primary storage resources, wherein the primary storage cost data indicates a cost of using a quantity of storage space of the one or more primary storage resources; accessing secondary storage cost data associated with the one or more secondary storage resources, wherein the secondary storage cost data indicates a cost of using a quantity of storage space of the one or more secondary storage resources; calculating, by the one or more computing systems, a storage cost for the one or more primary storage resources and the one or more secondary storage resources based on the primary storage usage data, the secondary storage usage data, the primary storage cost data, and the secondary storage cost data; and apportioning the calculated storage cost amongst the multiple entities.