Patent ID: 8799322

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for storing a file, comprising: receiving, from a requesting client, by a tenant application hosted on a storage broker hosting applications of multiple tenants, a request to store the file using a cloud storage service; identifying one or more metadata attributes to associate with the file; generating a graphical user interface configured to prompt the requesting client to supply values for the one or more metadata attributes; transmitting the generated graphical user interface to the requesting client; receiving values for the metadata attributes; selecting one of a plurality of cloud storage services to store the file based on a storage policy associated with the tenant application and the received values for the metadata attributes; transmitting a link to the requesting client used to upload the file to the selected cloud storage service; forwarding the received values for the metadata attributes to the selected cloud storage service to be stored with the file; and storing, in a database system, the received values for the metadata attributes and a reference to the file, wherein the reference provides a link to the file stored by the selected cloud storage service.