NetApp Assigned Patent

NetApp, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,190,583) developed by Raja Shekar, Bangalore, India, and Brian M. Hackworth, Sunnyvale, CA, for a "chargeback in a data storage system using data sets."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method and an apparatus to provide chargeback data for data sets are presented. In one embodiment, the method includes allowing an administrator of a data storage system to define a data set having a plurality of storage objects and to associate the data set with a data management policy and an owner. The method includes generating a report allocating usage for billing (for example) for an owner of a data set by tracking the storage elements used to implement the defined data set according to the data management policy. The method may further include using a storage manager to manage and track the data set as a single unit according to the data management policy."

The patent application was filed on Jan. 23, 2008 (12/018,772).