Patent ID: 8095684

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising program instructions for selecting a transport path for a data duplication job, wherein the program instructions are executable by a computer system to: receive a data duplication job request, wherein the data duplication job request comprises a request that data stored on a source device be duplicated for backup; enumerate a plurality of possible transport path components, wherein the plurality of possible transport path components comprise two or more possible destination devices, one or more possible means of transport, and one or more possible media servers; determine a ranking for at least a subset of the possible transport path components; determine an availability for at least a subset of the possible transport path components; select a transport path based on the determined rankings and the determined availabilities, wherein the program instructions executable to select the transport path are executable to: select a first transport path that utilizes the highest ranked means of transport, in response to determining that a highest ranked means of transport is available; and put the data duplication job into a queue or select a second transport path, in response to determining that the highest ranked means of transport is not available; wherein the data duplication job is performed using the selected transport path.