Patent ID: 7606844

Claim:
A method for performing a storage operation using a replication copy, the method comprising: creating in a first storage volume a secondary copy of production data; detecting data changes to at least one of the production data and the secondary copy of the production data; maintaining in a second storage volume a replication copy of the secondary copy based on the detected data changes; receiving from a management module executing on at least one processor an instruction to perform a storage operation on data of one of the production data and the secondary copy of the production data; receiving a storage policy indicating that the storage operation should be performed on data of the replication copy if a plurality of storage selection criteria is satisfied, wherein the plurality of storage selection criteria is indicative of at least a network pathway availability and a security requirement of the replication copy, wherein each of the plurality of storage selection criteria is assigned a corresponding priority weighting factor; determining whether the replication copy is available by consulting a schedule of storage operations involving the replication copy; evaluating with the management module the plurality of storage selection criteria by calculating a metric based on the priority weighting factors of the storage selection criteria; and performing the storage operation on data of the replication copy when the replication copy is available and when the calculated metric exceeds a threshold value.