EMC Assigned Fifteen Patents

Statistics collection in connection with storage performance
EMC Corp., Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,583,838) developed by six co-inventors for “techniques for statistics collection in connection with storage performance.“

The co-inventors are Marik Marshak, Newton, MA, Owen Martin, Hopedale, MA, Alex Veprinsky, Amnon Naamad, Brookline, MA, Sean C. Dolan, Belmont, MA, and Adnan Sahin, Needham, MA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Described are techniques for tracking activity for one or more devices. Each of the one or more devices is partitioned into one or more extents. Each of the one or more extents includes a plurality of sub extents. Each of the sub extents includes a plurality of chunks. For each of said one or more extents of each of said one or more devices, extent activity level information is determined including one or more metrics indicating an activity level for said each extent; and For each of said one or more extents of each of said one or more devices, an activity bitmap is determined. The activity bitmap includes an entry for each sub extent included in said each extent, said entry indicating an activity level for said each sub extent.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 27, 2010 (12/924,396).

Dynamic data object upgrades
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,612,405) developed by Jeroen Van Rotterdam, Berkeley, CA, and Mark Polman, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, for a “system and method of dynamic data object upgrades.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for managing a cloud computing environment. In some embodiments, this includes modifying an object or a component of an object at runtime and storing the modified object or modified component of an object in a storage device. In some embodiments, components of an object such as data structures are modified. In some embodiments, objects may have more than one version.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 30, 2011

Efficient storage system
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,612,696) developed by Ming Benjamin Zhu, Austin, TX, Kai Li, Seattle, WA, and R. Hugo Patterson, Los Altos, CA, for an “efficient storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system and method are disclosed for providing efficient storage. A plurality of data segments is received in a data stream. The system preliminarily checks in a memory having a relatively low latency whether one of the plurality of data segments may have been stored previously in a data segment repository. The memory having the relatively low latency stores data segment information. In the event that the preliminary check determines that one of the plurality of data segments may have been stored in the data segment repository, a memory having a relatively higher latency is checked to determine whether the data segment has been stored previously in the data segment repository.”

The patent application was filed on Aug. 23, 2012 (13/592,746).

Recovering files in storage systems
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,612,382) developed by four co-inventors for “recovering files in storage systems.“

The co-inventors are Dixitkumar Vishnubhai Patel, Monroe Township, NJ, Srinivasa Rao Vempati, Upton, MA, Jean Pierre Bono, Westborough, MA, and James Jiaming Pan, Beijing.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method is used in recovering files in storage systems. A set of file system blocks of a file of a file system is identified. The set of file system blocks are associated with a portion of an inode of the file of the file system. Mapping information associated with the portion of the inode is missing references to the set of file system blocks. Metadata of each file system block of the set of file system blocks is evaluated. Based on the evaluation, the portion of the inode of the file is recovered by updating mapping information associated with the portion of the inode.”

The patent application was filed on June 29, 2012 (13/538,754).

Efficient storage of non-searchable attributes
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,595,265) developed by seven co-inventors for an “efficient storage of non-searchable attributes.”

The co-inventors are Shu-Shang Sam Wei, Danville, CA, Roger W. Kilday, Livermore, CA, Victor Spivak, San Mateo, CA, Meir Amiel, Pleasanton, CA, Venkat Chandrasekaran, Newark, CA, Yik-Ping Li, Fremont, CA, and Xiaofeng Ma, San Ramon, CA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Storing data is disclosed. An attribute is included in a combined set of attributes. The combined set of attributes is stored in one or more database locations not specific to any one attribute in the combined set. “

The patent application was filed on July 24, 2012 (13/557,104).

Compression forecasting for de-dupe storage system
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,595,198) developed by Mark Chamness, Menlo Park, CA, for “compression forecasting for a deduplicating storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system for managing a storage system comprises a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to receive storage system information from a deduplicating storage system. The processor is further configured to determine a compression forecast based at least in part on the storage system information. The processor is further configured to provide a capacity forecast. The memory is coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.”

The patent application was filed on June 30, 2011 (13/174,499).

Remote read for storage devices
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,589,645) developed by Mark Halstead, Holliston, MA, and Marik Marshak, Newton, MA, for  “remote read for storage devices.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Reading data from a storage device includes presenting a read request to the storage device. In response to a more recent version of the data not being available on the storage device, the storage device requests the data from another storage device coupled to the storage device. In response to the more recent version of the data being available at the other storage device, the storage device obtains and copies the more recent version of the data prior to servicing the read request. The storage device services the read request by providing the data if the data is available. The storage device and the other storage device may be coupled using an RDF protocol.”

The patent application was filed on March 27, 2008 (12/079,476).

Data preservation
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,589,729) developed by four co-inventors for a “data preservation system and method.”

The co-inventors are Jason Pritchard, Hopkinton, MA, Himanshu Agrawal, Cambridge, MA, Michael Robillard, Shrewsbury, MA, and Robert Beauchamp, Milford, MA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data preservation device includes a circuit board configured to be positioned within a memory module slot of a computing device and releasably engage a memory bus of the computing device. A non-volatile memory storage device is electrically coupled to the circuit board. A control circuit is electrically coupled to the circuit board and is configured to read a data portion from the computing device and write the data portion to the non-volatile memory storage device during the occurrence of a power failure event on the computing device. An independent power supply is configured to power the data preservation device during the power failure event.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 28, 2007 (11/864,094).

Asymmetric storage system for high performance and grid computing
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,589,550) developed by Sorin Faibish, Newton, MA, and Uday K. Gupta, Westford, MA, for an “asymmetric storage system for high performance and grid computing.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A data processing system includes compute nodes, at least one metadata server, iSCSI storage access servers, and storage devices. The metadata server services requests from the compute nodes for file mapping information identifying iSCSI LUNs and logical blocks of file data. The storage access servers service iSCSI I/O requests from the compute nodes, and report server loading to the metadata server. A GbE IP network transfers read and write data between the compute nodes and the storage access servers. The storage access servers are linked to the storage devices for parallel access to iSCSI LUNs of the file data in the storage devices. The metadata server is programmed for server load balancing by indicating to the compute nodes respective ones of the storage access servers that should be used for access to the iSCSI LUNs.”

The patent application was filed on Oct. 23, 2006 (11/551,943).

Storage array virtualization
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,621,178) developed by Gregory W. Lazar, Upton, MA, for “techniques for storage array virtualization.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Described are techniques for performing data storage system management. The data storage system is divided into a plurality of virtual partitions. A plurality of policy sets are specified where each of the policy sets includes one or more policies. One of the plurality of policy sets is assigned to each of the plurality of virtual partitions. Each of the plurality of policy sets includes an access control policy that assigns a portion of data storage of the data storage system as a resource for exclusive use in one of the plurality of virtual partitions that is assigned said each policy set.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 22, 2011 (13/200,288).

Virtualization of storage processor for port failover
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,626,967) developed by five co-inventors for a “virtualization of a storage processor for port failover.”

The co-inventors are Dilesh Naik, Shrewsbury, MA, Shuyu Lee, Acton, MA, Matthew Long, Uxbridge, MA, Anoop George Ninan, Milford, MA, and Daniel B. Lewis, Newton, MA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Described are techniques for processing requests. A request is received at a data storage system. The request is a command to perform first processing and the request is sent from a client over a virtualized path. The virtualized path includes a virtual target port of the data storage system. The virtual target port is a first physical target port that provides a virtualized counterpart port for a second physical target port whereby requests directed to the second physical target port are routed to the first physical target port rather than the second physical target port. First processing is performed and a response to the request is generated. The response includes first information consistent with sending the request over a non-virtualized path to the second physical target port. The response is sent to the client.”

The patent application was filed on June 29, 2012 (13/538,056).

Virtualization of networked storage resources
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,627,005) developed by five co-inventors for a “system and method for virtualization of networked storage resources.”

The co-inventors are Bradford B. Glade, Harvard, MA, David W. Harvey, Newton, MA, John Kemeny, Westford, MA, Lee W. VanTine, Oxford, MA, and Matthew D. Waxman, Waltham, MA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ” A method, system, and program product for managing a plurality of storage area networks including a plurality of data storage volumes and one or more hosts, wherein the volumes are in a storage network, wherein the network includes one or more processors in the network, the program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium encoded with computer-executable program code enabling controlling virtualization of volumes in the storage network and managing a SCSI virtualization service; wherein the volume virtualization controller service supports virtualization enabling virtual Storage Area Networks (SAN)s by parsing between front-end SANs and back-end SANs regardless of physical configuration of the front and back-end SANs, to enable mapping from virtual volumes to back-end storage elements across virtual SANs.”

The patent application was filed on Nov. 15, 2010 (12/946,424).

Data protection system and method
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,627,138) developed by Roy E. Clark, Hopkinton, MA, and Robert C. Solomon, Kensington, N.H., for a “data protection system and method.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system, computer-implemented method, and a computer program product for monitoring a first data portion written to a first storage device accessible by a first computing device. At least a second data portion written to at least a second storage device accessible by at least a second computing device is monitored. Recovery data is written to a recovery storage device external to and accessible by the first and the at least a second computing devices, wherein the recovery data is based, at least in part, upon the first and second data portions.”

The patent application was filed on March 26, 2010 (12/732,330).

Process for cataloging data objects backed up from CAS
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,626,741) developed by Bala Vijayakumar, San Jose, CA, Suman Tokuri, and Ramachandaran Srinivasan, Bangalore, India, for a “process for cataloging data objects backed up from a content addressed storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A process for organizing data objects backed up from a content-addressed storage systems is disclosed. Content-addressed storage systems back up data objects in a flat directory, labeling them with non-intuitive user-unfriendly content addresses. Such directories can be large and difficult to browse, making selective recovery of desired data objects inefficient and laborious. When the content-addressed storage system is further archived to a secondary storage device, such as tape, navigation of archived data objects is especially tedious and difficult. An embodiment of the present invention enables easy navigation of a data object directory created by building a pseudo-file structure as content addressed data objects are archived to a secondary backup device. The file structure of the data object director is based upon timestamp metadata extracted from each data object, resulting in a navigable directory tree that is more intuitive and user-friendly.”

The patent application was filed on June 15, 2007 (11/818,576). The full-text of the patent can be found at  

Acquiring storage metrics
EMC, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (8,627,275) developed by Alexander Belov, Dmitry Tylik, and Oksana Nekrasova, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, for “technique for acquiring storage metrics.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A technique for acquiring information about a data storage system employs compiled software constructs and an uncompiled file external to the compiled software constructs. The uncompiled file stores data inquiry definitions, such as select query and view definitions. The compiled software constructs incorporate the data inquiry definitions from the uncompiled file into database language instructions, which the compiled software constructs send to a database for processing. Results of processing the database language instructions are returned to the compiled software constructs, which return the results to an application program or other client that requested them.”

The patent application was filed on Dec. 30, 2011 (13/341,354).