Patent ID: 7849058

Claim:
A storage system providing a storage volume for storing data to be read and written by a host computer, and operating as a main storage system, the storage system being coupled via a network to a secondary storage system for storing a backup of data stored in the storage volume, and comprising: an interface coupled to the network; a processor coupled to the interface; and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to: copy data stored in the storage volume to the secondary storage system, upon receiving an instruction to create a backup of data stored in the storage volume; record a first size of the data copied from the storage volume to the secondary storage system; predict a second size of data to be copied at a certain time point afterward based on the first size of the copied data; record a usable bandwidth of the network at a time when the data stored in the storage volume is copied to the secondary storage system; predict a usable bandwidth at a certain time point afterward based on the recorded usable bandwidth of the network; and predict a time period required for copying the data stored in the storage volume to the secondary storage system based on the second size of data to be copied and the predicted usable bandwidth of the network.