Patent ID: 8117164

Claim:
A method of providing a backup for structured data residing on a primary server, the method comprising the steps of: identifying, from among a plurality of structured data sets including at least one user-defined structured data set, stored on the primary server, at least one structured data set that is eligible for backup, wherein the at least one structured data set is identified as eligible for backup when a backup is scheduled to be performed automatically when underlying data within the at least one structured data set has changed since a previous backup beyond a prescribed threshold, wherein a determination that the underlying data within the at least one structured data set has changed beyond a prescribed threshold is made when a sum of all weights that have been assigned to all changes in the structured data since a last backup exceeds the prescribed threshold; acquiring from the primary server a snapshot of at least underlying data associated with the identified at least one structured data set; and storing the snapshot associated with the identified at least one structured data set on a secondary storage medium.