Network-based remote data storage system having multiple access interfaces

Claim 1

A data storage system comprising: a storage server that maintains a plurality of remote storage areas associated with respective users; and a plurality of software applications executing on the storage server to provide a plurality of different access interfaces for accessing the remote storage areas, wherein the access interfaces comprise: a first access interface to provide access to a target one of the plurality of remote storage areas in response to access requests from a client computer in which an operating system of the client computer, wherein the first access interface supports Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) for accessing data files within the target one of the plurality of user-assignable storage area using extensions to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to present the target one of the plurality of remote storage areas to software applications executing on the client computer as if the data files were local to the client computer, a second access interface to directly service access requests from at least one communication software application executing on the client computer to automatically backup files from the client computer to the data storage system, a third access interface to allow a web browser executing on the client computer to browse the target one of the plurality of remote storage areas, and a fourth access interface operable to receive an electronic mail message and automatically access the target one of the plurality of remote storage areas in response to the e-mail.