Patent ID: 8635421

Claim:
A method comprising: writing a first copy of data on a first data storage local to a first server node; pipelining replication of the first copy of data on the first data storage, the pipelining replication including, allocating storage for a second copy of the data on a second data storage local to a second server node and allocating storage for a third copy of the data on a third data storage local to a third server node, creating a second pointer from the allocated storage of the second server node to the first copy of data and creating a third pointer from the allocated storage of the third server node to the first copy of data, and scheduling populating the second data storage and the third data storage with the first copy of the data based upon network characteristics; and removing the second pointer following completion of populating the second data storage with the first copy of the data, and removing the third pointer following completion of populating the third data storage with the first copy of the data.