Patent ID: 7814118

Claim:
A tangible computer-readable storage medium carrying instructions for controlling a computer system to create copies of data such that a subsequent request can determine the precedence with which to access the copies of data, by a method comprising: identifying a first copy of source data stored within a computer system; providing a database with information describing the availability of the first copy of the data stored within the computer system, wherein the availability information of the first copy reflects a time required to retrieve one or more data objects from the first copy relative to a time required to retrieve the one or more data objects from other copies of the source data; identifying at least a second copy of the source data stored within the computer system wherein the first and second copies are respectively stored on first and second different and separate data storage devices, wherein the first and second different and separate data storage devices are not temporary caches for stored data, and wherein the first and second data storage devices are coupled in the computer system via a private computer network; updating the database with information describing an availability of the second copy of the source data stored within the computer system, wherein the database is accessible to a client computing device coupled to the private computer network, and wherein the database is configured to permit the client computing device to determine which of multiple copies of source data to access for performing a storage operation based at least in part on the availability information of the first copy and the availability information of the second copy.