Data backup

• US 20010044910A1
• Filed: 01/29/2001
• Published: 11/22/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Windstream Intellectual Property Services, Inc. (Windstream Holdings II LLC)
• Original Assignee: CenterBeam, Inc. (EarthLink Incorporated)
• Inventors: Ricart, Glenn, Laube, Sheldon, Epstein, Marc
• Granted Patent: US 6,892,221 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments

Abstract

A system, signal and method for data backup. The method, comprising the steps of: identifying at least one data increment which was previously provided to a subscriber server or generated by a subscriber server and which is to be backed up; checking at least one service provider access server to determine if it has a copy of at least a portion of the identified data increment or can regenerate or replicate at least a portion of the identified data increment; and backing up the data increment using the copy or regenerated or replicated portion from the access server if it is found and otherwise using a copy sent from the subscriber server after the checking step.

Claims

1. A method for data backup, comprising the steps of:

identifying at least one data increment which was previously provided to a subscriber server or generated by a subscriber server and which is to be backed up;

checking at least one service provider access server to determine if it has a copy of at least a portion of the identified data increment or can regenerate or replicate at least a portion of the identified data increment; and

backing up the data increment using the copy or regenerated or replicated portion from the access server if it is found and otherwise using a copy sent from the subscriber server after the checking step.

2. The method of

claim 1

, wherein the step of identifying at least one data increment includes:

evaluating one of a date stamp, time stamp, sequence number, source address, URL and checksum of the data increment at the subscriber server; and

sending an identifier for each identified data increment to a service provider data backup server.

3. The method of

claim 2

, wherein the step of checking at least one service provider access server is conducted by the service provider data backup server.

4. The method of

claim 1

, wherein if the at least one service provider access server has the copy or regenerated or replicated portion of the identified data increment, a checksum is computed to determine if the subscriber server copy contains the same data as the copy or regenerated or replicated portion.

5. The method of

claim 1

, wherein if a copy is sent from the subscriber server after the checking step, back up is delayed for a time period.

6. The method of

claim 1

, wherein the step of backing up includes backing up the data increment to a service provider data backup server.

11. A configured storage medium embodying data and instructions readable by a computer to perform the method of

claim 1

.

7. A system comprising an access server at an ISP, a data backup server at the ISP, and a connection to a subscriber server for Internet access and for data backup.

8. The system of

claim 7

, wherein the access server includes at least one of a Web server, an e-mail server and an FTP server.

9. A system comprising:

means for providing access to a wide area network at an ISP;

means for backing up data at the ISP; and

means for connecting to a subscriber server to the ISP for wide area network access and for data backup.

10. A signal embodied in a computer, the signal comprising at least one data increment identifier identifying data to backup to nonvolatile storage, and a corresponding indication of whether a copy of that data increment was found on a provider access server.

12. A system comprising:

means for identifying at least one data increment which was previously provided to a subscriber server or generated by a subscriber server and which is to be backed up;

means for checking at least one service provider access server to determine if it has a copy of at least a portion of the identified data increment or can regenerate or replicate at least a portion of the identified data increment; and

means for backing up the data increment using the copy or regenerated or replicated portion from the access server if it is found and otherwise using a copy sent from the subscriber server after the checking step.