Overland Storage/Sphere3D Assigned Two Patents

Tape library emulation with automatic configuration and data retention
Overland Storage, Inc., a Sphere3D subsidiary, San Diego, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,846,548) developed by Gonzalez, Victoria, Escondido, CA, and Encarnacao, Sergio, San Diego, CA, for a “tape library emulation with automatic configuration and data retention.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Disk based emulation of tape libraries is provided with features that allow easier management and administration of a backup system and also allow increased flexibility to both archive data on tape at a remote location and also have fast restore access to archived data files. Features include automatic emulation of physical libraries, and the retention and write protection of virtual tapes that correspond to exported physical tapes.”

The patent application was filed on November 22, 2016 (15/359,458).

Handling file metadata
Overland Storage, Inc., a Sphere3D subsidiary, San Diego, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,836,471) developed by Kaplan, Marc, Wijayaratne, Ravi, San Jose, CA, Osborn, Kevin, Santa Cruz, CA, and Burrows, Dan, San Jose, CA, for a “system and method of handling file metadata.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A network storage system comprises data storage, one or more file system APIs, and a metadata handler. The data storage can comprise file data and associated metadata. The file system APIs can be configured to read and write file data and metadata to and from the data storage. The metadata handler can have a library of functions for handling the metadata. The library can include a metadata blob creation function and a metadata blob extraction function. The metadata blob creation function cooperates with the file system APIs to read source metadata associated with specified file data and creates and populates a metadata blob from which a substantial copy of the source metadata can be generated. The metadata blob extraction function receives at least a metadata blob, extracts information from the metadata blob, and cooperates with the file system APIs to generate destination metadata, a substantial copy of the source metadata.”

The patent application was filed on September 14, 2012 (13/619,007).