Microsoft Assigned Four Patents

Encoding data to enable it to be stored in storage block
that includes at least one storage failure
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,639,993) developed by Karin Strauss, Seattle, WA, for “encoding data to enable it to be stored in a storage block that includes at least one storage failure.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques involving failure management of storage devices are described. One representative technique includes encoding data to enable it to be stored in a storage block that includes at least one storage failure. The data is encoded such that it traverses the storage failures when stored in the storage block. When it is determined that a storage access request has requested the data stored in a storage block having such failures, the data is decoded to restore it to its original form.”

The patent application was filed on Nov. 11, 2010 (12/943,953).

Scalable blob storage integrated with scalable structured storage
Microsoft, Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,620,884) developed by seven co-inventors for a “scalable blob storage integrated with scalable structured storage.”

The co-inventors are Bradley Gene Calder, Bellevue, WA, Ju Wang, Redmond, WA, Xinran Wu, Seattle, WA, Niranjan Nilakantan, Redmond, WA, Deepali Bhardwaj, Snohomish, WA, Shashwat Srivastav, and Alexander Felsobuki Nagy, Seattle, WA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems, methods and computer storage media for facilitating the structured storage of binary large objects (Blobs) to be accessed by an application program being executed by a computing device. Generally, the structured storage of Blobs includes a primary structured storage index for indexing Blobs, a secondary hash index that is integrated into the structured storage system, a Blob log stream, and a Blob data stream for storing blocks that include the Blob data. In an embodiment, a block is created and written to a Blob store along with a block list. The block list facilitates the locating of one or more blocks that store the Blob data. In this embodiment, a primary structured storage index and a secondary hash index are updated to facilitate efficient access of the Blob in a structured storage system.”

The patent application was filed on Oct. 24, 2008 (12/257,747).

Unified storage for configuring multiple networking technologies
Microsoft, Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,615,570) developed by Deon C. Brewis, Redmond, WA, Taroon Mandhana, Redmond, WA, and PehKeong Teh, Redmond, WA, for a “unified storage for configuring multiple networking technologies.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A network and connection provisioning framework for configuring and provisioning multiple aspects of network connectivity (e.g., multiple networks, media types, and/or connections). The framework may comprise a unified configuration interface that enables an administrator to configure multiple different types of network connectivity. A single configuration file comprising settings for multiple aspects of network connectivity may be generated based on preferences entered by a system administrator, or by exporting current settings from a particular computing device. Global configuration policies or other configuration settings that span multiple types of network connectivity may be also created and stored in one or more configuration files. Stand-alone media managers and/or plug-in modules may implement one or more standardized application programming interface functions so that they may interoperate with the network and connection provisioning framework. The standardized API may be used to ensure that configuration information is handled and stored in a standardized manner by different media managers and/or plug-in modules.”

The patent application was filed on Nov. 21, 2008 (12/276,157).

Virtualized storage assignment method
Microsoft, Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,607,253) developed by Jacob Oshins, Seattle, WA, for a “virtualized storage assignment method.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Various aspects are disclosed for building a device driver stack in a virtual machine partition that does not physically control the device represented by the stack. In an embodiment, a secondary interface and driver for an I/O device may be instantiated. Information from an I/O virtualization layer describing the devices that the associated driver may control may be requested. A multi-path redirection layer may provide a handle to an existing stack that includes a driver for the I/O device. This existing stack may then be used to communicate with the device and allow the creation of a new stack including an object representing the device and a new driver for the device. The multi-path redirection layer may then open a handle to the new stack and inform the device virtualization layer, which may then ask the existing device interface to relinquish control of the device to the newly created interface.“

The patent application was filed on Nov. 7, 2012 (13/671,251).