Patent ID: 8140602

Claim:
A system for storing data comprising: a data manager for receiving data to be stored in a Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) storage system; an object manager for handling objects in which the received data is stored, the object manager configured to create a first object and associate a protection level with the first object, wherein the object manager changes the protection level of the first object from mutable to appendable, and from appendable to immutable, wherein the immutable protection level prevents the first object from being modified, overwritten, and deleted, the mutable protection level allows the first object to be modified, overwritten, and deleted, and the appendable protection level allows the first object to be appended to existing data such that once appended, data becomes immutable; a protection manager configured to determine whether the received data is to be added to the first object, and to determine the protection level of the first object, wherein the protection manager rejects the data unless the protection manager determines that the data is to be added to the first object, in which case the protection manager adds the data to the first object; and a data structure manager configured to maintain a data structure and a WORM log in the storage system, wherein the data structure manager maintains a WORM index of the data structure in the storage system by: dividing the WORM index into at least one segment; and storing the segment into a second object, wherein the second object is appendable.