Patent ID: 7783606

Claim:
A method comprising: monitoring memory activity of an application running on a host computer having a memory, wherein the monitoring is carried out by a data protection unit physically distinct from the host computer without suspending the application, wherein the application is configured to temporarily store output data in the memory before the data is output to a primary data volume including a first aggregation of one or more physical storage devices, and wherein monitoring memory activity of the application includes monitoring to detect when the temporarily stored output data is output to the primary data volume; based on the memory activity, detecting when the memory contains no pending data associated with the application to be written to the primary data volume; in response to detecting that the memory contains no pending data, generating a snapshot of data stored in the primary data volume; storing the snapshot on a secondary data volume including a second aggregation of one or more physical storage devices; receiving a request for email data from a remote client by an internet message access protocol (IMAP) server on the data protection unit; providing a list of snapshots from the IMAP server to the remote client; receiving from the remote client a selection of a snapshot from the list of snapshots; parsing the selected snapshot for email data; and providing the email data to the remote client.