Patent ID: 8572137

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for de-duplication of data in a distributed network, the method comprising: receiving, by a first de-duplication manager (DDM) in the distributed network, at least a unique identification (ID) of the data and a network address of a first storage medium in which the data is stored; locating one or more storage media in the distributed network in which the data is stored using an association of the unique ID of the data and one or more physical addresses where the data is stored, wherein a logical address of the data is associated with network addresses of the one or more storage media; determining, via the association, if there is more than a predetermined threshold number of copies of the data; and if there is more than the predetermined threshold number of copies of the data: selecting one or more copies of the data for removal, and removing the selected one or more copies of the data from a second storage medium selected from among the one or more storage media, wherein selecting the one or more copies comprises selecting the one or more copies of the data that are furthest from a client that frequently accesses the data.