Patent ID: 7430513

Claim:
A method for organizing folders on and reserving digital data storage space from a distributed network of data storage resources for digital data storage consumers, comprising: (a) defining a multi-tiered tree-like framework of a logical hierarchical representation of descriptive nodes defined as work types having nested therewith sub-work types, said logical hierarchical representation is defined to reflect a company's desired folder hierarchy structure based on one or more business objectives parsed from a database of company records and defined as business products and/or business developments and integrated into said logical hierarchical representation, and said logical hierarchical representation is an enforced template for a folder hierarchy structure for reserving said data storage space and for organizing said digital data according to said one or more business objectives defining said logical hierarchical representation, wherein each of said work types (i) provides a hierarchical point from which said nested sub-work types are related and where said digital data is organized, wherein said sub-work types relation and organization is in accordance with said logical hierarchical representation defined by said one or more business objectives for the combination of said work types and its respective nested sub-work types (ii) provides attributes to define which level of said folder hierarchy structure relates to said reservation of said digital data storage, (iii) provides default data size values for said digital data storage space, (iv) pre-defines folder names for said folders related to said work types, and (v) automates definition of said folder hierarchy structure; (b) defining for each of said work types a plurality of work units acting as an abstracted reference to one or more of said physical folders on said distributed data storage resources, wherein each of said work units is constrained by said defined logical hierarchical representation of said plurality of work types and the respective constraints for each of said work types in terms of said pre-defined names, and said data size values; (c) determining the location and physical structure of said folders for said reserved storage space on said distributed network of data storage resources based on availability and load optimization, and wherein said physical folders are created based on said steps (i), (ii) and (iii); and (d) constraining said data storage consumers to stay within the defined boundaries of said physical folder structure governed by said folder hierarchy structure of said work units and said data size values, and taking action when said boundaries are breached.