Patent ID: 8442957

Claim:
An object management system including a computer system having a first storage device, wherein the computer system is configured to: store an object on the first storage device, the object having object data; divide the object into a plurality of partitions, each of the plurality of partitions including at least a portion of the object data; select from the plurality of partitions, based on a selection criterion, a partition for migration; and provide a copy of data comprising the selected migration partition to a second storage device for storage as an individual stored object, the second storage device being separate from the computer system; wherein the partition selected for migration is retained on the first storage device, after the copy of data comprising the selected migration partition has been provided to the second storage device, unless and until the partition is selected for purge from the first storage device based at least in part on a purge criterion; the partition selected for migration is a first partition; and the computer system is further configured to: receive a data access request; use the data access request to select for retrieval from the second storage device a second partition comprising data identified in the data access request; and select for retrieval from the second storage device a third partition not identified explicitly in the data access request based on stored data indicating that the third partition was retrieved in connection with a previous operation in which the second partition was retrieved.