Patent ID: 8505007

Claim:
A method to provide instant duplication of the machine images of an IT environment from a source logical disk to at least one target logical disk, implemented by a system comprising: a management server to oversee all operations; a storage controller; at least one host target machine of the IT Environment; and at least two storage disks controlled by said storage controller, wherein said method comprises: configuring each host target machine to access a logical drive as its hard drive; receiving a request for duplicating said source disk from said management server; accessing said logical drive; managing by said storage controller of the information inside each said logical drive, and storing the information on each of said at least one target logical disks; implementing by said storage controller of at least one of a first and a second duplication algorithm, wherein: said first duplication algorithm is suited for duplication of an area in said at least one target disk undergoing a plurality of changes over time relative to said second duplication algorithm providing a file system structure with many more read operations than write operations; wherein if both of said first and second duplication algorithms are implemented, said implementing step includes implementing a selection algorithm for choosing between said first and said second duplication algorithms for each element of said at least one target disk in the IT environment.