1. A logical data storage apparatus comprising: a physical storage layer comprising data storage containers such as magnetic or optical disks, LUNs, and RAID groups; a logical storage layer comprising logical data storage containers such as file systems, folders and directories; a virtual storage layer comprising virtual containers, wherein said virtual containers are complex data structures and, wherein said virtual containers may contain a plurality of logical references to stored logical objects and, wherein logical objects referenced in said virtual containers may be stored in one or more logical containers.