Dynamic and automatic colocation and combining of service providers and service clients in a grid of resources for performing a data backup function

A method for providing a data backup function, comprising:

• providing a virtual machine requiring a periodic data backup function;
• providing a physical computing device hosting an application configured to perform the periodic data backup function;
• co-locating the virtual machine and the physical computing device by transferring the virtual machine to the physical computing device;
• and
• streaming data backup traffic from the virtual machine to a predefined internet protocol address associated with the physical computing device;
• whereby the data backup function is performed after the co-locating and entirely on a storage area network without streaming the data backup traffic across a local area network.

A computing system for performing a data backup function, comprising:

• a plurality of computing devices arranged locally and/or remotely, the plurality of computing devices defining at least a storage area network;
• a plurality of applications arranged on one or more of the computing devices;
• a plurality of virtual machines arranged on one or more of the computing devices, wherein the virtual machines define applications and/or services;
• at least one data backup function defined by at least one virtual machine or by at least one application contained on at least one of the plurality of computing devices;
• and
• a data orchestration tool for transferring a virtual machine to and from one of the plurality of computing devices and another of the computing devices;
• wherein the data backup function is initiated by, after transferring the virtual machine to the one of the plurality of computing devices by the data orchestration tool, streaming data backup traffic from the transferred virtual machine to a predefined internet protocol address associated with the one of the plurality of computing devices;
• whereby the data backup function is performed entirely on the storage area network without transferring data backup traffic across a local area network.