Panzura Assigned Five Patents

Synchronizing file updates between two cloud controllers of distributed filesystem
Panzura, Inc., Campbell, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,805,056) developed by Parkison, Brian Christopher, Davis, Andrew P., Santa Cruz, CA, and Taylor, John Richard, Tiburon, CA, for a “synchronizing file updates between two cloud controllers of a distributed filesystem.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The disclosed embodiments disclose techniques for synchronizing file updates between two cloud controllers of a distributed filesystem. Two or more cloud controllers collectively manage distributed filesystem data that is stored in the cloud storage systems, the cloud controllers ensure data consistency for the stored data, and each cloud controller caches portions of the distributed filesystem. During operation, a cloud controller receives a request from a client to access a file in the distributed filesystem. The cloud controller sends a synchronization update request for the file to a second cloud controller and in response receives a synchronization update for the file from the second cloud controller.”

The patent application was filed on June 24, 2014 (14/313,703).

Managing global namespace for distributed filesystem
Panzura, Inc., Campbell, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,805,054) developed by Davis, Andrew P., Santa Cruz, CA, Sharpe, Richard, Mountain View, CA, and Burrington, Allan, Morgan Hill, CA, for a “managing a global namespace for a distributed filesystem.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The disclosed embodiments disclose techniques for managing a global namespace for a distributed filesystem. Two or more cloud controllers collectively manage distributed filesystem data that is stored in a cloud storage system, the cloud controllers ensure data consistency for the stored data, and each cloud controller caches portions of the distributed filesystem. Furthermore, a global namespace for the distributed filesystem is also split across these cloud controllers, with each cloud controller ‘owning’, (e.g., managing write accesses for) a distinct portion of the global namespace and maintaining a set of namespace mappings that indicate which portion of the namespace is assigned to each cloud controller. During operation, an initial cloud controller receives a request from a client system to access a target file in the distributed system. This initial cloud controller uses the namespace mappings for the global namespace to determine a preferred cloud controller that will handle the request.”

The patent application was filed on September 6, 2013 (14/020,493).

Restoring archived file in distributed filesystem
Panzura, Inc., Campbell, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,804,928) developed by Davis, Andrew P., Santa Cruz, CA, Parkison, Brian Christopher, and Taylor, John Richard, Tiburon, CA, for a “restoring an archived file in a distributed filesystem.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The disclosed embodiments disclose techniques for restoring an archived file in a distributed filesystem. Two or more cloud controllers collectively manage distributed filesystem data that is stored in one or more cloud storage systems, the cloud controllers ensure data consistency for the stored data, and each cloud controller caches portions of the distributed filesystem. Furthermore, cloud controllers may archive infrequently-accessed files in an archival cloud storage system. During operation, a cloud controller receives a request from a client system to access an archived file, and restores this archived file from the archival cloud storage system.”

The patent application was filed on September 5, 2013 (14/019,270).

Managing metadata and storage for cloud controller in distributed filesystem
Panzura, Inc., Campbell, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,792,298) developed by Taylor, John Richard, Tiburon, CA, Chou, Randy Yen-pang, San Jose, CA, and Davis, Andrew P., Santa Cruz, CA, for a “managing metadata and data storage for a cloud controller in a distributed filesystem.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The disclosed embodiments disclose techniques for managing metadata and data storage for a cloud controller in a distributed filesystem. Two or more cloud controllers collectively manage distributed filesystem data that is stored in one or more cloud storage systems. More specifically, the cloud controllers cache and ensure data consistency for the data stored in the cloud storage systems, with each cloud controller maintaining, (e.g., storing) in a local storage device:, (1) one or more metadata regions containing a metadata hierarchy that reflects the current state of the distributed filesystem, and, (2) cached data for the distributed filesystem. During operation, the cloud controller receives an incremental metadata snapshot that references new data written to the distributed filesystem. The cloud controller stores updated metadata from this incremental metadata snapshot in one of the metadata regions on the local storage device.”

The patent application was filed on February 15, 2013 (13/769,211).

Using byte-range locks to manage multiple concurrent accesses
to file in distributed filesystem
Panzura, Inc., Campbell, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,792,294) developed by Lin, Yun, Bellevue, WA, and Sharpe, Richard, Mountain View, CA, for a “using byte-range locks to manage multiple concurrent accesses to a file in a distributed filesystem.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The disclosed embodiments disclose techniques for using byte-range locks to manage multiple concurrent accesses to a file in a distributed filesystem. Two or more cloud controllers collectively manage distributed filesystem data that is stored in the cloud storage systems, the cloud controllers ensure data consistency for the stored data, and each cloud controller caches portions of the distributed filesystem. During operation, a cloud controller receives from a first client a request to access a portion of the file. The cloud controller contacts the owning cloud controller for the portion of the file to request a byte-range lock for that portion of the file. The owning cloud controller returns a byte-range lock to the requesting cloud controller if no other clients of the distributed filesystem are currently locking the requested portion of the file with conflicting accesses.”

The patent application was filed on July 2, 2014 (14/322,544).