US Patent 9454324 Methods and apparatus for data lifecycle analysis

Methods and apparatuses to determine similarity among data lifecycles of data sets protected via a backup store having one or more storage devices are described. Each data set may be associated with one data lifecycle indicating a schedule to store one or more copies of the data set in the storage devices. The backup store can have one or more polices. Each life cycle may be specified in one of the policies. Two or more of the policies may be consolidated into one single policy specifying an updated data lifecycle. In one embodiment, the updated data lifecycle and data lifecycles of the two or more polices may be similar according to the similarity determined. A particular one of the data set may be associated with one of the data lifecycles of the two or more polices. The storage device may be configured to back up the particular data set according to the updated data lifecycle of the one single policy.