Patent ID: 8041907

Claim:
A method comprising: storing data within a plurality of containers as stored data, wherein the storing of the data is performed according to access locality of the data and retention time of the data, the retention time defines an amount of time the data is to be stored within the plurality of containers before deletion of this data, the access locality comprises a probability that a group of data comprising the data will be accessed together, the stored data comprises a plurality of data segments, and the stored data is distributed among each of the plurality of containers such that each of the plurality of containers stores one or more different data segments of the plurality of data segments; deleting one or more data segments of the plurality of data segments to generate remaining stored data, wherein the deleting creates one or more gaps among the remaining stored data; and removing at least one of the one or more gaps by compacting the remaining stored data, wherein the compacting comprises: selecting at least two containers of the plurality of containers, the selecting is performed using a predetermined criteria, and the predetermined criteria comprises: the access locality of the remaining stored data, and retention time of the remaining stored data; and distributing the remaining stored data among the at least two containers.