Patent ID: 7657533

Claim:
A data management system comprising: a plurality of storage devices individually comprising a physical storage space, wherein the physical storage space of a first storage device of the plurality of storage devices is configured to store a baseline version of a data object and the physical storage space of a second storage device of the plurality of storage devices is configured to store at least one of a plurality of delta versions of the data object in response to a determination that available storage space on at least one of the plurality of storage devices does not currently exist with respect to predefined storage limits; and processing circuitry configured to control storage operations of at least one of the plurality of storage devices to process a restore request with respect to the data object, to access the delta versions from the second storage device of the plurality of storage devices responsive to the restore request, wherein accessing the delta versions includes querying a tracking database of a cell manager to obtain data indicating storage locations of the delta versions, and to initiate communication of data of the baseline version and the delta versions of the data object to a computer system, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to act as a proxy to extract remotely stored delta versions, wherein restoring the data object includes combining the baseline version of the data object with the remote delta versions of the delta object.