Abstract: This invention is a software application utilizing distributed storage systems to provide backup, archive and disaster recovery (BCADR) functionality across multiple clouds. The multi-cloud aware BCADR application and distributed storage systems are utilized together to prevent data lost and to provide high availability in disastrous incidents. Data deduplication reduces the storage required to store many backups. Reference counting is utilized to assist in garbage collection of staled data chunks after removal of staled backups.