Patent ID: 7117246

Claim:
In an electronic mail (e-mail) system, a methodology for storing e-mail messages in a distributed manner across a plurality of data servers in order to tolerate f number of faults in a manner that allows the system to provide continuous operation, the method comprising: for each e-mail message to be stored, dividing the message into a mutable portion and an immutable portion, said mutable portion comprising that portion of the message data which is subject to change after the message has been stored, said immutable portion comprising that portion of the message which is not subject to change after the message has been stored; and storing the message in a distributed manner by: redundantly storing the immutable portion of the message as immutable message data, f+1 times among selected ones of said data servers, in order to tolerate f number of failures in a manner that allows the system to provide continuous operation; and redundantly storing the mutable portion of the message as mutable message data, 2f+1 tines among selected ones of said data servers, in order to tolerate f number failures in a manner that allows the system to provide continuous operation, said mutable portion including a mutable pointer indicating where the immutable message data is stored.