Patent ID: 7958093

Claim:
A method of storing data in a data storage system, comprising: receiving a plurality of data objects, wherein each data object of the plurality of data objects has an associated expected lifetime identifier that identifies criteria indicative of an amount of time the associated data object is expected to be retained in the data storage system, wherein each expected lifetime identifier comprises a retention value that indicates a relative importance of retaining the associated data object and an associated modification function for modifying the retention value and wherein the retention value is selected from a range of numbers between and including a first real number and a second real number; and wherein the first real number is a lowest number of the range of numbers indicating the associated data object is not to be retained and the second real number is a highest number of the range of numbers indicating the associated data object is not to be deleted; grouping a subset of the data objects into a data container in a storage device based on the data objects having a similar expected lifetime identifier; and writing the subset of the data objects in the data container out to physical storage in response to an occurrence of an event, wherein the method further comprises: receiving a modification of a retention value of a data object of the subset of the data objects; determining whether the data object of the subset of the data objects is to be moved to another data container; and in response to determining that the data object of the subset of the data objects is to be moved to another data container, associating the data object of the subset of the data objects with another data container containing other data objects that have a retention value that is similar to the modified retention value of the data object of the subset of the data objects.