The present invention provides computer systems, methods, and software products enabling the creation and maintenance of disaster recovery volumes having a reduced impact with regard to network traffic over a communications network. A disaster recovery volume is generally created at a local archival storage unit including therein at least one storage medium constituting the disaster recovery volume. The medium constituting the disaster recovery volume is associated with the primary volume thereby allowing the storage medium constituting the disaster recovery volume to be relocated to a remote archival storage unit at a remote location without compromising the association between the primary volume and the disaster recovery volume. Incremental changes to the primary volume may then be communicated and incorporated in to the disaster recovery relocated to the remote location.

A disaster recovery computer system comprising at least one computer having programming associated therewith, the at least one computer communicatively connected to at least one local archival storage unit and at least one remote archival storage unit, wherein the computer programming when executed provides data transfer and control capability to create at the local archival storage unit a disaster recovery volume of a primary volume on at least one storage medium, which storage medium constitutes the disaster recovery volume, the computer programming associates the storage medium constituting the disaster recovery volume with the primary volume thereby allowing the storage medium to be relocated to a remote location without compromising the association between the primary volume and the disaster recovery volume.

Disaster recovery generally refers to a plan or strategy for duplicating computer operations, for instance, of a company, wherein copies of a volume or volumes of computer data and/or software of a primary location are established at a remote location thereby providing a redundant measure of protection in the event of a disruption of operations at the primary location. Disaster recovery thereby allows a company to resume operations in the remote location within days as opposed to, in certain instance, a permanent loss in certain aspects of the company's information infrastructure.

Disaster recovery systems - file recovery appearing in the art provide companies with the ability to create remote backup copies of a volume or volumes of data and/or software. The information necessary to create the backup copies at the remote location is typically communicated to a remote server connected to a client computer over a communications network. Data recovery similarly entails receiving data over the communications network. Systems providing disaster recovery in this fashion, however, have numerous shortcomings with respect to creating backup copies of a volume or volumes having relatively large quantities of data and/or software. For instance, a large data transfer may increase network traffic and thereby consume a large portion of the network's capacity sufficient to slow the company's operations during the transfer. For example, creating a remote backup copy for a server computer having 100 gigabytes of data stored thereon over a company's network with multiple TI data transfer capability will tie up the company's network for months. This is particularly problematic for companies operating around the clock that may not otherwise limit data transfer to off-peak hours and companies having networks with limited bandwidth. There is therefore a need for remote disaster recovery systems and methods having a reduced impact with regard to network traffic over a company's network.