Patent ID: 7778976

Claim:
A method comprising: A method comprising: generating at least one data surrogate using information of received data and a plurality of data changes received from at least one data source, wherein the data surrogate is application-aware relative to an application corresponding to the received data and the plurality of data changes, the generating including generating additional data surrogates corresponding in part to data changes received from additional data sources; extracting original metadata of each data surrogate; identifying relationships among portions of the original metadata and components of each data surrogate; generating new metadata based in part on the identified relationships among the portions of the original metadata and components of each data surrogate by combining the portions of the original metadata and the components of each data surrogate; generating an extended data surrogate comprising the data surrogate and one of the original metadata and new metadata; archiving at least one instance of the data surrogate and the extended data surrogate in at least one storage site, wherein the archiving includes active archiving, wherein active archiving includes at least one of performing at least one operation on the data surrogate and placing at least one of the data surrogate and the extended data surrogate in the at least one storage site as appropriate to a corresponding application; and controlling access to data of at least one of the data surrogate and the extended data surrogate by at least one of applications and servers.