A system and method for providing a consistent view of data stored therein, which can change dynamically in an uncoordinated way, includes a client program and a snapshot server program. The snapshot server program permits one or more client programs to request snapshots of data from the snapshot server program such that the data included in or referenced by a snapshot originates from one or more host server programs and the data is accessible to the snapshot server program, but is managed independently of the snapshot server program.