Alibaba Assigned Patent

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, has been assigned a patent (9,053,021) developed by Li, Zhihui, He, Kun, Yu, Jun, and Zhou, Yi, Hangzhou, China, for a “management apparatus and method of distributed storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and systems for managing distributed storage servers are described. The storage servers may be selected and divided into multiple sequences and multiple virtual node groups. Each sequence of the multiple sequences may include a predetermined number of storage servers, and each virtual node group may include a set of storage servers of the multiple sequences. Data may be transferred to storage severs of a virtual node group. If the storage servers have instantaneous or temporary malfunctions, the data may be transferred to temporary storage servers and then transferred back the storage servers after being revived. If the storage servers have permanent malfunctions, the data may be transferred to the temporary storage servers. The storage servers may be replaced using the temporary storage servers.“

The patent application was filed on September 14, 2012 (13/618,815).