Patent ID: 8190835

Claim:
A method for globally de-duplicating data inline in a shared architecture, the method comprising: receiving a digital sequence for storage on a first storage system in a network that includes the first storage system and one or more additional storage systems, wherein the first storage system and each of the one or more additional storage systems include a de-duplication client, wherein the first storage system includes original data and at least a snapshot of the original data; determining that the digital sequence includes at least one block of data that is not stored in the first storage system by the de-duplication client of the first storage system; determining that the at least one block of data is a duplicate of a block of data already stored on one of the one or more additional storage systems, wherein the de-duplication client of the first storage system cooperates with a de-duplication server to determine that the at least one block of data is a duplicate of a block of data already stored on one of the one or more additional storage systems; and storing, on the first storage system, a pointer or reference that points to the block of data already stored on the one of the one or more additional storage systems, wherein the at least one block of data is not stored on the first storage system, wherein a single instance of the at least one block of data is used for the original data and the snapshot in the first storage system and in the one or more additional storage systems.