IBM Assigned Seven Patents

Physical computer storage media for processing plurality of I/O request jobs
IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,713,572) developed by five co-inventors for “methods, systems, and physical computer storage media for processing a plurality of input/output request jobs.”

The co-inventors are David D. Chambliss, Morgan Hill, CA, Joseph S. Hyde II, Tucson, AZ, Prashant Pandey, San Jose, CA, William G. Sherman, Tucson, AZ, and Rui Zhang, Guangzhou, China.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods, systems, and physical computer-readable storage medium for processing a plurality of IO request jobs are provided. The method includes determining whether one or more request jobs are not meeting a QoS target, each job of the one or more request jobs having a corresponding priority, selecting a highest priority job from the one or more request jobs, if one or more request jobs are not meeting the QoS target, determining whether the highest priority job has a corresponding effective rate limit imposed thereon, if so, relaxing the corresponding effective rate limit, and if not, selecting one or more lower priority jobs from the one or more request jobs and tightening a corresponding effective limit on the one or more lower priority jobs from the one or more request jobs in accordance with a delay factor limit.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 15, 2011 (13/233,162).

Physical computer storage medium for organizing data into data structures
IBM, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,732,211) developed by Jorge D. Acuna, Vail, AZ, Ezequiel Cervantes and Nedzad Taljanovic, Tucson, AZ, for a “method, computer system, and physical computer storage medium for organizing data into data structures.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods, computer systems, and physical computer storage medium for organizing data are provided. A method includes monitoring usage of the data, detecting a pattern in the usage of the data, and assigning a first concrete implementation associated with a first data structure to the data, based, in part, on the detected pattern of usage of the data. The method also includes identifying a change in the pattern of usage of the data, after the step of assigning and switching the first concrete implementation associated with the first data structure to a second concrete implementation, based, in part, on the change in the pattern of usage.”

The patent application was filed on Jan. 28, 2011 (13/016,430).

HA storage systems
IBM, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,707,085) developed by four co-inventors for “HA storage systems and methods.”

The co-inventors are Manohar Rao Bodke, Lakshmi Priya Kanduru, Hyderabad, India, Rohit Krishna Prasad, Cedar Park, TX, and Ravi A. Shankar, Austin, TX.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Provided are systems and methods for accessing a storage device from a node when a local connection failure occurs between the node and the storage device. A failure is determined to have occurred at a first node access path between a first node and a storage device that prevents an application at the first node from accessing the storage device from the first node access path. An access request is sent from the first node to a second node. The second node has a second node access path to the storage device. A determination is made that the second node can communicate with the storage device. The storage device is accessed by an application at the first node via the second node access path.”

The patent application was filed on June 30, 2011 (13/173,681).

Method and device for high density storage
IBM, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,715,804) developed by four co-inventors for a “method and device for high density storage.”

The co-inventors are Urs T. Duerig, Bernd W. Gotsmann, Armin W. Knoll, Rueschlikon, Switzerland, and David S. Pires, Allschwil, Switzerland.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present invention is directed to a method for producing a data storage medium on a surface of a substrate for storing data in the form of topographic features. The method comprises a first step wherein a crosslinking agent containing at least three alkyne groups is deposited on the surface of the substrate. In a second step the deposited cross linking agent is cured so as to obtain the data storage medium in the form of a crosslinked polymeric layer on the surface of the substrate. The invention is further directed to a data storage medium obtained by this method and a data storage device comprising this data storage medium.“

The patent application was filed on Oct. 15, 2009 (13/124,310).

Providing homogeneous views of information collections
in heterogeneous information storage sources
IBM, Armonk, NYk, has been assigned a patent (8,719,311) developed by five co-inventors for “providing homogeneous views of information collections in heterogeneous information storage sources.”

The co-inventors are Jeffrey Blight, Windsor, United Kingdom, Amanda Elizabeth Chessell, Alton, UKm, Dan Jeffrey Mandelstein, Ivan Matthew Milman, and Charles Daniel Wolfson, Austin, TX.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method, apparatus and computer program product, for generating a framework for supporting a homogeneous view of an information collection managed in a heterogeneous system of information storage sources. The framework includes an information collection data model mapped to an information source data model, and an information storage services data model mapped to the information source data model. The information collection data model defines information to be collected and stored as an information collection in one or more information storage sources. The information source data model references data sets containing the information defined in the information collection data model. The information storage services data model defines information storage services for accessing and performing operations on the one or more information storage sources storing the information collection. The framework allows a user to view and perform operations on the information collection without knowing how the information collection is stored.“

The patent application was filed on March 18, 2011 (13/051,139).

Storage in tiered environment for colder data segments
IBM, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,719,529) developed by four co-inventors for “storage in tiered environment for colder data segments.“

The co-inventors are Michael T. Benhase,Lokesh M. Gupta, Carol S. Mellgren, and Alfred E. Sanchez, Tucson, AZ.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Exemplary system and computer program embodiments for storing data by a processor device in a computing environment are provided. In one embodiment, by way of example only, from a plurality of available data segments, a data segment having a storage activity lower than a predetermined threshold is identified as a colder data segment. A chunk of storage is located to which the colder data segment is assigned. The colder data segment is compressed. The colder data segment is migrated to the chunk of storage. A status of the chunk of storage is maintained in a compression data segment bitmap.”

The patent application was filed on Jan. 14, 2011 (13/007,465).

Non-disruptive configuration of virtualization controller in storage system
IBM, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,713,218) developed by Ashish Chaurasia and Subhojit Roy, Pune, India, for a “non-disruptive configuration of a virtualization controller in a storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Embodiments of the invention relate to configuring a virtualization controller in SAN data storage system without disrupting I/O operations. One aspect of the invention concerns a method that comprises establishing a first data path between a host and a storage controller in the same communication zone wherein the storage controller comprises disks for storing data; adding a virtualization controller to the zone wherein the virtualization controller maps the disks to virtual volumes and establishes a second data path between the host and the disks through the virtual volumes; removing the first data path in response to the host detecting the second data path; and performing I/O operations between the host and the disks through the second data path.”

The patent application was filed on Aug. 31, 2011 (13/222,153).