Delayed instant copy operation for short-lived snapshots

A computer program product, the computer program product comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:
• computer readable program code configured to define a snapshot referencing a source partition of a storage volume on a storage device;
• computer readable program code configured to receive a request to write a block of data to the source partition;
• computer readable program code configured to initiate a delayed instant copy operation upon receiving the write request, by allocating a target partition on the storage device and replacing, in the storage volume, the source partition with the target partition;
• computer readable program code configured to receive a definition of a condition for completion of the delayed instant copy operation;
• the condition comprising a cancellation of the snapshot;
• and
• computer readable program code configured to complete the delayed instant copy operation upon the condition being met.