Patent ID: 8768980

Claim:
A method for storing multiple small files S i on a remote file storage system of at least one server, the remote file storage system using a predetermined block size, the method comprising: gathering the small files S i into groups G p of interrelated small files S i according to a selection function SF, wherein the selection function SF is based on a contextual relationship of at least one of content of the S i files and filenames of the S i files; for each group G p , creating a large file L p containing all the small files of the G p group and saving the large file L p in the remote file storage system, wherein the selection function SF is defined in order to maximize the number of large files L p whose size is close to but not more than an integer multiple of the predetermined block size; for each new small file S a to be saved: applying to the S a file the selection function SF in order to determine the related group G p ; one of (i) loading from the remote file storage system the large file L p corresponding to the G p group and (ii) creating the large file L p corresponding to the G p group; adding the S a file to the large file L p to create a modified large file L p ; and saving the modified large file L p in the remote file storage system; for each stored small file S a to be loaded: applying to the S a file the selection function SF in order to determine the related group G p ; loading from the remote file storage system the large file L p corresponding to the G p group; and extracting the S a file from the large file L p ; and for each stored small file S a to be modified: applying to the S a file the selection function SF in order to determine the related group G p ; loading from the remote file storage system the large file L p corresponding to the G p group; extracting the S a file from the large file L p ; modifying the content of the S a file and replacing the S a file in the large file L p to create an updated large file L p ; and saving the updated large file L p in the remote file storage system.