Pure Storage Assigned Fourteen Patents

Storage system architecture
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,967,342) developed by Colgrove, John, Davis, John D., and Hayes, John, Mountain View, CA, for a “storage system architecture.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage system is provided. The storage system includes a plurality of storage units, each of the plurality of storage units having storage memory for user data and a plurality of storage nodes, each of the plurality of storage nodes configured to have ownership of a portion of the user data. The storage system includes a first pathway, coupling the plurality of storage units such that each of the plurality of storage units can communicate with at least one other of the plurality of storage units via the first pathway without assistance from the plurality of storage nodes.”

The patent application was filed on December 12, 2016 (15/376,220).

Automatically reconfiguring storage memory topology
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,959,170) developed by Hayes, John, Colgrove, John, Lee, Robert, Ostrovsky, Igor, Robinson, Joshua, and Vajgel, Peter, Mountain View, CA, for an “automatically reconfiguring a storage memory topology.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage cluster is provided. The storage cluster includes a plurality of storage nodes within a single chassis. Each of the plurality of storage nodes has nonvolatile solid-state memory for storage of user data. The plurality of storage nodes are configured to distribute the user data and metadata throughout the plurality of storage nodes with erasure coding of the user data such that the plurality of storage nodes can access the user data, via the erasure coding, with a failure of two of the plurality of storage nodes. The plurality of storage nodes are configured to employ the erasure coding to reconfigure redundancy of the user data responsive to one of adding or removing a storage node.”

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2017 (15/476,331).

Performing non-disruptive upgrade of data in storage system
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,959,043) developed by Cao, Jianting, Cui, Wentian, Sunnyvale, CA, Golden, Christopher, Mountain View, CA, Grunwald, David, San Francisco, CA, Smith, Scott, San Mateo, CA, and Zhou, Qi, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “performing a non-disruptive upgrade of data in a storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Performing a non-disruptive upgrade of data in a storage system that includes a plurality of storage devices and a storage controller, including: creating new data in a new data format, wherein the new data includes a reference to old data in an old data format, wherein system software in the storage system can utilize data in the new data format and the old data format, determining that a portion of the volume has changed, and responsive to determining that the portion of the volume has changed, updating the new data to include a reference to old data associated with a portion of the volume that precedes the changed portion of the volume, new data associated with the changed portion of the volume, and a reference to old data associated with a portion of the volume that follows the changed portion of the volume.”

The patent application was filed on March 16, 2016 (15/071,663).

Increased storage unit encryption based on loss of trust
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,948,615) developed by Davis, John D., Mountain View, CA, for an “increased storage unit encryption based on loss of trust.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for storage unit communication is provided. The method includes detecting an event associated with a loss of trust for the data stored within a storage unit and encrypting, at the storage unit, data that is being transmitted along an outbound path from the storage unit to a requestor, wherein the encrypting is responsive to detecting the event.”

The patent application was filed on March 16, 2015 (14/659,459).

Aggressive data deduplication using lazy garbage collection
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,940,234) developed by Davis, John D., Mountain View, CA, for an “aggressive data deduplication using lazy garbage collection.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for extending data lifetime for reference in deduplication is provided. The method includes determining that a quantity of user data has at least a threshold amount of data that is re-created in a storage system. The method includes protecting at least portions of the quantity of user data from erasure by garbage collection in the storage system during a predetermined time interval, wherein the protected at least portions are available for data deduplication of further user data in the storage system during the predetermined time interval.”

The patent application was filed on March 26, 2015 (14/670,288).

Memory use and eviction in deduplication storage system
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,940,060) developed by Colgrove, John, Los Altos, CA, Karr, Ronald, Palo Alto, CA, Miller, Ethan L., Santa Cruz, CA, Perneti, Vinay K., Mountain View, CA, Sandvig, Cary A., Palo Alto, CA, Wang, Feng, Sunnyvale, CA, and Zhang, Wei, Santa Clara, CA, for a “memory use and eviction in a deduplication storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The method includes storing data including an index summary, (IS) and a deduplication map, (DDM) in volatile memory of a deduplication system. The method also includes detecting that the stored data exceeds a data allocation size limit for the volatile memory. The method includes evicting the data from the volatile memory using a memory eviction policy to meet the data allocation size limit. The method further includes performing a first eviction by evicting the DDM levels from an oldest DDM level to a newest DDM level until a first one of the data allocation size limit or a DDM threshold is met. The method also includes performing a second eviction by evicting the IS levels from an oldest IS level to a newest IS level until a first one of the data allocation size limit or IS threshold is met in response to the data allocation size limit not being met by the first eviction.”

The patent application was filed on October 21, 2016 (15/331,181).

Storage cluster
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,934,089) developed by Hayes, John, Colgrove, John, and Davis, John D., Mountain View, CA, for a “storage cluster.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A plurality of storage nodes in a single chassis is provided. The plurality of storage nodes in the single chassis is configured to communicate together as a storage cluster. Each of the plurality of storage nodes includes nonvolatile solid-state memory for user data storage. The plurality of storage nodes is configured to distribute the user data and metadata associated with the user data throughout the plurality of storage nodes such that the plurality of storage nodes maintain the ability to read the user data, using erasure coding, despite a loss of two of the plurality of storage nodes. A plurality of compute nodes is included in the single chassis, each of the plurality of compute nodes is configured to communicate with the plurality of storage nodes. A method for accessing user data in a plurality of storage nodes having nonvolatile solid-state memory is also provided.”

The patent application was filed on November 30, 2015 (14/954,757).

Utilizing RDMA for communication between controllers in storage array
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,910,800) developed by Dreier, Roland, Liu, Yan, Mountain View, CA, and Mann, Sandeep, Fremont, CA, for an “utilizing remote direct memory access, (RDMA) for communication between controllers in a storage array.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Emulating a remote direct memory access, (RDMA) link between controllers in a storage array, including: inserting, into a buffer utilized by a direct memory access, (DMA) engine of a first storage array controller, a data transfer descriptor describing data stored in memory of the first storage array controller and a location to write the data to memory of the second storage array controller, retrieving, in dependence upon the data transfer descriptor, the data stored in memory of the first storage array controller, and writing the data into the memory of the second storage array controller in dependence upon the data transfer descriptor.”

The patent application was filed on September 7, 2017 (15/697,802).

Migrating applications executing on storage system
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,910,618) developed by Curley, Jonathan, Menlo Park, CA, Jin, Yuchen, San Jose, CA, Lumb, Christopher, San Francisco, CA, Potashnik, Alexei, Palo Alto, CA, Uppugandla, Dilip Kumar, Milpitas, CA, Zankel, Christian, Sunnyvale, CA, and Zheng, Xiaojing, San Jose, CA, for a “migrating applications executing on a storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Migrating applications executing on a storage system, including: detecting, by the storage system, that an application executing on a first platform within the storage system should be migrated to a second platform within the storage system, rejecting, by the storage system, all pending input/output, (I/O) requests received by the storage system from the application executing on the first platform, and initiating, by the storage system, execution of the application on the second platform.”

The patent application was filed on April 27, 2017 (15/499,462).

Maintaining data associated with storage device
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,892,147) developed by Coleman, Gordon James, Los Altos, CA, Seppanen, Eric D., Mountain View, CA, and Tang, Wei, San Jose, CA, for a “maintaining data associated with a storage device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An indication of a power-up of a storage device may be received. In response to receiving the indication, a first data structure that is stored at a volatile memory of the storage device may be retrieved. The first data structure may include first information associated with characteristics of a plurality of data blocks of the storage device. A second data structure stored at a non-volatile memory of the storage device may be retrieved where the second data structure includes second information associated with the characteristics of the plurality of data blocks of the storage device. A new data structure may be created based on the first information and the second information and a rule where an entry of the new data structure is provided a value from one of the first information or the second information based on the rule.”

The patent application was filed on January 31, 2017 (15/420,889).

Emulating RDMA link between controllers in storage array
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,892,071) developed by Dreier, Roland, Liu, Yan, Mountain View, CA, and Mann, Sandeep, Fremont, CA, for an “emulating a remote direct memory access, (RDMA) link between controllers in a storage array.“

The patent application was filed on August 3, 2015 (14/817,168).

Deduplication of regions with storage system
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,891,858) developed by Colgrove, John, Los Altos, CA, Miller, Ethan, Santa Cruz, CA, Hayes, John, Mountain View, CA, Sandvig, Cary, Palo Alto, CA, Golden, Christopher, Mountain View, CA, and Cao, Jianting, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “deduplication of regions with a storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system and method for performing coarse-grained deduplication of volume regions. A storage controller detects that a first region of a first volume is identical to a second region of a second volume, wherein the first volume points to a first medium and the second volume points to a second medium. In response to detecting the identical regions, the storage controller stores an indication that the first range of the first medium underlies the second range of the second medium. Also in response to detecting the identical regions, the mappings associated with the second range of the second medium are invalidated.”

The patent application was filed on January 26, 2017 (15/416,665).

Placing workloads in multi-array system
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,886,314) developed by Borowiec, Benjamin, Santa Clara, CA, and Noonan, Terence, Vadnais Heights, MN, for “placing workloads in a multi-array system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Placing workloads in a multi-array system comprising a plurality of storage arrays, including: determining, for each of a plurality of storage arrays, a current system activity level trend of the storage array, receiving a performance profile of a workload to be executed on one of the storage arrays, generating, for each of the plurality of storage arrays in dependence upon the current system activity level trend of the storage array and the performance profile of the workload, a projected system activity level trend for the storage array, identifying, in dependence upon the projected system activity level trend for each of the plurality of storage arrays, an optimal storage array for receiving the workload, and placing the workload on the optimal storage array.”

The patent application was filed on January 28, 2016 (15/008,521).

Delivering authorization and authentication for user of storage array from cloud
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (9,882,913) developed by Borowiec, Benjamin P., Santa Clara, CA, Hu, Jimmy T., Foster City, CA, Miller, Ethan L., Santa Cruz, CA, Noonan, Terence W., Vadnais Heights, MN, Sapuntzakis, Constantine P., Mountain View, CA, Vachharajani, Neil A., San Francisco, CA, and Zuo, Daquan, Sunnyvale, CA, for “delivering authorization and authentication for a user of a storage array from a cloud.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Providing authorization and authentication in a cloud for a user of a storage array includes: receiving, by a cloud-based security module from a client-side array services module, user credentials, authenticating, by the cloud-based security module, the user credentials, identifying, by the cloud-based security module, authorized access privileges defining one or more storage array services accessible by the user, generating, by the cloud-based security module, a token representing the authentication of the user credentials and the authorized access privileges, and providing, by the cloud-based security module to the client-side array services module, the token.”

The patent application was filed on January 19, 2016 (15/000,822).