Patent ID: 8880469

Claim:
A system for providing data, comprising: a performance storage unit, wherein the performance storage unit receives and stores a data item, and wherein the performance storage unit removes the stored data item once the stored data item is stored by taking a snapshot on a segment deduplication storage system; a segment storage unit, wherein in the event that it is determined, based at least in part on one or more predetermined criteria, that the data item is to be automatically stored in the segment storage unit, the segment storage unit divides the data item into the plurality of segments and generates a deduplicated set of segments including by storing a reference to any segments already stored in the segment storage unit that are determined to be identical to any of the plurality of segments comprising the data item, wherein the data item is removed from performance storage unit in the event that it is determined that the data item is to be automatically stored in the segment storage unit; a performance segment storage unit, wherein the performance segment storage unit stores the deduplicated set of segments comprising the data item in the event that a user requires the data item to be available for high performance access; and a determiner for: determining whether a requested data is stored in the performance storage unit; and in the event that the requested data is not stored in the performance storage unit, determining whether the requested data is stored in the performance segment storage unit; in the event that the requested data is not stored in the performance segment storage unit, determining whether the requested data is stored in the segment storage unit.