Patent ID: 8041678

Claim:
A machine-implemented method for providing integrated data availability and historical data protection, the machine-implemented method comprising: maintaining, with a single integrated system, at least one high-availability copy of high-availability data by incorporating, into the at least one high-availability copy of the high-availability data, changes made to the high-availability data in near real-time; replicating, with the single integrated system, the high-availability data to produce multiple backup copies of the high-availability data, each of the multiple backup copies of the high-availability data being a copy of the high-availability data as the high-availability data existed at a respective point in time, the single integrated system being a native system for the maintaining and the replicating; configuring, via the single integrated system, a first group of administrators to have administrative access to the at least one high-availability copy of the high-availability data, and a second group of administrators to have administrative access to the multiple backup copies of the high-availability data, the first group of administrators and the second group of administrators having no administrators in common; permitting the administrative access to the at least one high-availability copy of the high-availability data only to administrators of the first group of administrators, as a result of the configuring; and permitting the administrative access to the multiple backup copies of the high-availability data only to administrators of the second group of administrators, as a result of the configuring.