Patent ID: 7698258

Claim:
A data storage and indexing method comprising: receiving data comprising one or more binary large objects (blobs), each blob comprising a single document, having a file format, and each blob having associated metadata including a blob identifier, an application identifier, and a document type identifier that identifies a file format of a corresponding blob from among a plurality of different file formats, and a document identifier that identifies a content chunk and a position within the content chunk of a corresponding blob; creating an index for the data; simultaneously storing the index for the data and the data in a searchable storage system; and making the data visible in the searchable storage system; retrieving at least a desired portion of the data from the searchable storage system pursuant to a request for the data by receiving one or more blob identifiers corresponding to the desired portion of data, determining the document identifiers corresponding to each blob of the desired portion of the data, and retrieving the portion of the data corresponding to the determined document identifiers.