Microsoft Assigned Five Patents

Erasure coding across multiple zones
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (9,378,084) developed by Calder, Bradley G., Bellevue, WA, Gopalan, Parikshit Santhana, Mountain View, CA, Huang, Cheng, Redmond, WA, Li, Jin, Bellevue, WA, Ogus, Aaron W., Redmond, WA, Simitci, Huseyin, Maple Valley, WA, and Yekhanin, Sergey, Mountain View, CA, for a “erasure coding across multiple zones.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In various embodiments, methods and systems for erasure coding data across multiple storage zones are provided. This may be accomplished by dividing a data chunk into a plurality of sub-fragments. Each of the plurality of sub-fragments is associated with a zone. Zones comprise buildings, data centers, and geographic regions providing a storage service. A plurality of reconstruction parities is computed. Each of the plurality of reconstruction parities computed using at least one sub-fragment from the plurality of sub-fragments. The plurality of reconstruction parities comprises at least one cross-zone parity. The at least one cross-zone parity is assigned to a parity zone. The cross-zone parity provides cross-zone reconstruction of a portion of the data chunk.“

The patent application was filed on June 25, 2013 (13/926,722).

Techniques for resource location and migration across data centers
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (9,367,257) developed by Hamilton, James R, Bellevue, WA, Manos, Michael J, North Bend, WA, Dunagan, John D, Bellevue, WA, Wolman, Alastair, Agarwal, Sharad, Seattle, WA, and Zhang, Ming, Redmond, WA, for a “techniques for resource location and migration across data centers.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An exemplary system includes a front-end component to receive requests for resources in a data center and configured to associate each request with identifying information, to locate one or more resources for each request and to store, in a log file, the identifying information and information about the location of the one or more resources, one or more distributed computation and storage components to acquire log file information and configured to analyze log information to decide if one or more resources associated with one or more requests should be migrated to a data center in a different geographical location, and a location service component to receive decisions made by the one or more distributed computation and storage components and configured to inform the front-end component when a decision causes one or more resources to be migrated to a data center in a different geographical location to thereby allow the front-end component to re-direct future requests for the one or more migrated resources to the data center in the different geographical location. Various other devices, systems and methods are also described.“

The patent application was filed on September 11, 2008 (12/209,008).

Dynamically allocated thread-local storage
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (9,354,932) developed by Ostrovsky, Igor, Redmond, WA, Hoag, Joseph E., Kenmore, WA, Toub, Stephen H., and Liddell, Mike, Seattle, WA, for a “dynamically allocated thread-local storage.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Dynamically allocated thread storage in a computing device is disclosed. The dynamically allocated thread storage is configured to work with a process including two or more threads. Each thread includes a statically allocated thread-local slot configured to store a table. Each table is configured to include a table slot corresponding with a dynamically allocated thread-local value. A dynamically allocated thread-local instance corresponds with the table slot.“

The patent application was filed on June 21, 2011 (13/165,421).

Data deduplication in virtualization environment
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (9,342,244) developed by Kalach, Ran, Bellevue, WA, Oltean, Paul Adrian, Redmond, WA, Teodorescu, Cristian G., Seattle, WA, and Dickson, Mathew James, Sammamish, WA, for a “data deduplication in a virtualization environment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques are described herein that are capable of optimizing, (i.e., deduplicating) data in a virtualization environment. For example, optimization designations, a.k.a. deduplication designations) may be assigned to respective regions of a virtualized storage file. A virtualized storage file is a file that is configured to be mounted as a disk or a volume to provide a file system interface for accessing hosted files. In accordance with this example, each optimization designation indicates an extent to which the respective region is to be optimized, (i.e., deduplicated). In another example, a virtualized storage file is mounted to provide a virtual disk that includes hosted files. In accordance with this example, optimization designations are assigned to the respective hosted files. In further accordance with this example, each optimization designation indicates an extent to which the respective hosted file is to be optimized.“

The patent application was filed on January 11, 2015 (14/594,143).

Extensible file system
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA, has been assigned a patent (9,336,231) developed by Pudipeddi, Ravisankar V, Bellevue, WA, Ghotge, Vishal V, Seattle, WA, Havewala, Sarosh C, Redmond, WA, Thind, Ravinder S, Kirkland, WA, and Zbikowski, Mark J, Woodinville, WA, for a “extensible file system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An extensible file system format for portable storage media is provided. The extensible file system format includes the specification of primary and secondary directory entry types that may be custom defined. The primary and secondary directory entry types can be further classified as critical and benign directory entries.“

The patent application was filed on November 8, 2013 (14/075,525).