Patent ID: 7321960

Claim:
An article of manufacture comprising a computer readable medium having computer readable program code disposed therein to adjust the data transfer rate for a first one of (N) primary backup appliances, wherein (N) is greater than 1, and wherein each of said (N) primary backup appliances is capable of communicating with one or more first data storage and retrieval systems and with one or more secondary backup appliances capable of communicating with one or more second data storage and retrieval systems, and wherein said article of manufacture is capable of communicating with a first one of said one or more secondary backup appliances, the computer readable program code comprising a series of computer readable program steps to effect: forming at least one consistent transactions set comprising information received from said one or more first data storage and retrieval systems; receiving an (n)th status signal from each of the other (N−1) primary backup appliances, wherein (n) is greater than 1 or equal 1; receiving an (n+1)th status signal from each of the other (N−1) primary backup appliances; calculating an (n)th effective bandwidth for each of said (N) primary backup appliances; calculating an (n)th time to complete for each of said (N) primary backup appliances; calculating an (n)th effective aggregate bandwidth for all (N)primary appliances; determining if said article of manufacture has a greatest (n)th time to complete among the (N) primary backup appliances; operative if said article of manufacture has the greatest (n)th time to complete among the (N) primary backup appliances: setting an (n)th delay to 0; providing all or part of at least one consistent transactions set to said first secondary backup appliance using said (n)th delay.