Techniques are described for copying data using a throttling mechanism to achieve a desired time delay. A request is received to copy a data portion from a source location of a first physical device to a target location of a second physical device. A desired average delay time is determined in accordance with a plurality of values including a throttle value affecting a rate at which data is copied from the source location to the target location. The request is partitioned into subrequests. The data portion is partitioned into a subportions. Each of the subrequests copies one of the subportions. The subrequests are performed whereby a time delay is introduced between at least two of the plurality of subrequests and whereby an average time delay with respect to each pair of consecutively issued subrequests is the desired average time delay.