Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for inter-node data replication while reducing network traffic for remote backup. A system receives a command to duplicate a dataset, located on a source network node, to a remote network node, accesses, on the source network node, signatures of a previous snapshot of the dataset and signatures of a current snapshot of the dataset, performs, at the source network node, a local signature comparison between the previous snapshot and the current snapshot to identify one or more signatures that do not match, sends the signatures that do not match to the remote network node, searches, on the remote network node, for the signatures that do not match, and sends data associated with the signatures that do not match to the remote network node for incorporation within a current remote snapshot if they do not exist on a current remote network node.