Affinity based allocation for storage implementations employing deduplicated data stores

A system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• a memory coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the memory stores program instructions executable by the one or more processors to:
• access an affinity database, to determine whether an affinity relationship has been established between a data source and a first data target of the plurality of data targets, in response to identifying initiation of a backup of the data source, wherein
• the first data target is a deduplication data store, and
• the affinity relationship indicates a likelihood that at least some information stored on the data source is already being stored on the first data target prior to performing the backup of the data source;
• assign the first data target to the data source to complete the backup, in response to determining that the affinity relationship has been established;
• and
• perform the backup of the data source to the first data target, wherein
• the backup copies a set of data stored on the data source to the first data target.

A computer program product comprising:

• a plurality of instructions, comprising
• a first set of instructions, executable on a computer system, to access an affinity database, to determine whether an affinity relationship has been established between a data source and a first data target of a plurality of data targets, in response to identifying initiation of a backup of the data source, wherein the first data target is a deduplication data store, and
• the affinity relationship indicates a likelihood that at least some information stored on the data source is already being stored on the first data target prior to performing the backup of the data source;
• a second set of instructions, executable on the computer system, to assign the first data target to the data source to complete the backup, in response to determining that the affinity relationship has been established;
• and
• a third set of instructions, executable on the computer system, to perform the backup of the data source to the first data target, wherein the backup copies a set of data from the data source to the first data target;
• and
• non-transitory computer readable storage media, wherein the instructions are encoded in the non-transitory computer readable storage media.