METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SCALEABLE, DISTRIBUTED, DIFFERENTIAL ELECTRONIC-DATA BACKUP AND ARCHIVING

摘要

One embodiment of the present invention provides a distributed, differential electronic-data backup and archiving system (302, 304, 306-309, 310-316, and 318) that includes client computers (310-316) and cells (306-309). Client computers execute front-end-application components of the distributed, differential electronic-data backup and archiving system, the front-end application components receiving data objects (802) from client computers and sending the received data objects to cells of the distributed, differential electronic-data backup and archiving system for storage. Cells within the distributed, differential electronic-data backup and archiving system store the data objects, each cell comprising at least one computer system (340, 342) with attached mass-storage (344, 346) and each cell storing entire data objects as lists that reference stored, unique data chunks (410-414) within the cell, a cell storing all of the unique data chunks for all data objects stored in the cell.