Amazon Assigned Fourteen Patents

Automated configuration of log-coordinated storage groups
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Reno, NV, has been assigned a patent (10,025,802) developed by Vermeulen, Allan Henry, Corvallis, OR, Zaki, Omer Ahmed, Bellevue, WA, Shevade, Upendra Bhalchandra, Herndon, VA, and Rogers, Gregory Rustin, Reston, VA, for an “automated configuration of log-coordinated storage groups.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A configuration manager of a storage service receives a set of service requirements, comprising one or more of: a performance requirement for one or more types of storage operations, or an access interface type requirement Based on the service requirements, a candidate storage configuration that includes one or more data store instances and a first log-based transaction manager is generated. Subsequent to an approval of the first storage configuration by a client, the establishment of the data store instances and the log-based transaction manager is initiated.”

The patent application was filed on September 19, 2014 (14/491,371).

Restoring partitioned database tables from backup
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Reno, NV, has been assigned a patent (10,025,673) developed by Maccanti, Maximiliano, Bellevue, WA, Rath, Timothy Andrew, Pokkunuri, Rama Krishna Sandeep, Vig, Akshat, Seattle, WA, Ng, Clarence Wing Yin, Daly City, CA, Copparam, Srivaths Badrinath, Thiruchi Loganathan, Rajaprabhu, Issaquah, WA, Xiao, Wei, Kirkland, WA, and Stevenson, William Alexander, Seattle, WA, for a “restoring partitioned database tables from backup.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system that implements a data storage service may store data for database tables in multiple replicated partitions on respective storage nodes. In response to a request to restore a given table that was backed up in a remote storage system, e.g., key-value durable storage system, the service may create a new table, and may import a copy of each of the partitions of the given table from the remote storage system into the new table. The request to restore the table may specify a modified value for a configuration parameter for the table or for one of its partitions. The service may apply the new configuration parameter value to the table or its partitions during the restore operation. The new configuration parameter value may indicate an increase or decrease in storage capacity or throughput capacity, and its application may automatically trigger a partition split or move operation.”

The patent application was filed on September 20, 2013 (14/032,870).

Amortized snapshots
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,019,184) developed by Lee, Kerry Quintin, Seattle, WA, for an “amortized snapshots.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A snapshot depth for a volume is obtained, with the snapshot depth indicating an upper limit to a number of snapshot updates, where an individual snapshot update of the snapshot updates includes data of the volume that has been modified since a time of storage of a previous snapshot update and an amount, based at least in part on the snapshot depth, of other data of the volume. The number of snapshot updates sufficient to construct a full snapshot of a state of the volume at a particular point in time is determined based at least in part on the snapshot depth, and at least the number of snapshot updates is caused to be store.”

The patent application was filed on January 11, 2017 (15/404,102).

Snapshot data operation request processing
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,019,180) developed by Miah, Mahmood, Eddey, Matthew James, Seattle, WA, and Yuhan, John Sandeep, Lynnwood, WA, for a “snapshot data operation request processing.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A snapshot analysis system analyzes a plurality of data snapshots taken in connection with data stored on a block device allocated by a data storage system. The snapshot analysis system may include an ingestor capable of initially detecting new snapshots and adding a root node for the snapshots. The system may include a block device analyzer that analyzes each snapshot to determine its contents, the relationship within data structures extant within the snapshot, and the snapshot’s relationship to other snapshots and/or that of other block devices. The system may also include a clustering analyzer capable of determining whether snapshots are associated with multipart block devices, such as LVM or MD RAID devices. The system may further include a block device emulator that exposes data associated with a given snapshot as an addressable block device without necessitating retrieval or exposure of the full block device to which the snapshot is associated.”

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2016 (15/087,463).

Data replication using single master failover protocol
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,015,042) developed by Rath, Timothy Andrew, Des Moines, WA, Kulesza, Jakub, Bellevue, WA, and Lutz, David Alan, Renton, WA, for a “system and method for data replication using a single master failover protocol.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system that implements a data storage service may store data on behalf of storage service clients. The system may maintain data in multiple replicas of various partitions that are stored on respective computing nodes in the system. The system may employ a single master failover protocol, usable when a replica attempts to become the master replica for a replica group of which it is a member. Attempting to become the master replica may include acquiring a lock associated with the replica group, and gathering state information from the other replicas in the group. The state information may indicate whether another replica supports the attempt, (in which case it is included in a failover quorum) or stores more recent data or metadata than the replica attempting to become the master, (in which case synchronization may be required). If the failover quorum includes enough replicas, the replica may become the master.”

The patent application was filed on June 10, 2016 (15/179,812).

Virtual tape library
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,013,166) developed by Vincent, Pradeep, Kenmore, WA, Carl, Craig, and Sundaram, Arun, Seattle, WA, for a “virtual tape library system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A virtual tape library system is used to back up data from a client archive system expecting physical tape operations onto logical data containers and/or a metadata store of a storage service by emulating the physical tape operations. For example, a virtual tape library appliance is installed at a customer premise location to interface with a client archive system. The virtual tape library appliance provides virtual interfaces to appear as physical tape library subsystems, such as tape drives and media changing interfaces. However, these virtual interfaces are supported by logical data containers in a storage service and a metadata store. The virtual tape library system allows the client archive system to make requests to import new virtual tapes, export virtual tapes for archiving, store virtual tapes at a virtual location, load and eject virtual tapes into a virtual tape drive and operate on virtual tapes in a virtual tape drive.”

The patent application was filed on December 20, 2012 (13/722,743).

Device type differentiation for redundancy coded storage
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,009,044) developed by Lazier, Colin Laird, Seattle, WA, for a “device type differentiation for redundancy coded data storage systems.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques described and suggested herein include systems and methods for optimizing performance characteristics for data archives stored on data storage systems using redundancy coding techniques by placing different processed portions of the data in disparate systems. For example, redundancy coded shards, which may include identity shards that contain unencoded original data of archives, may be stored on different types of systems to optimize for various retrieval use cases and implemented environments. Implementing systems may monitor various performance characteristics so as to adaptively account for changes to some or all of the monitored parameters.”

The patent application was filed on June 17, 2015 (14/742,687).

Non-parity in grid encoded storage
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (9,998,539) developed by Brock, Adam Frederick, Donlan, Bryan James, and Kirschner, James Caleb, Seattle, WA, for a “non-parity in grid encoded data storage systems.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques for encoding data storage systems using grid-encoded data storage systems with non-parity linear redundancy encoding schemes are described herein. A grid of shards with derived shards and data shards is generated that is indexed by a first index and a second index and is configured so that each shard is reproducible from other shards with the same first index and is also reproducible from other shards with the same second index. The grid of shards is further configured so that each data row of the grid of shards has at least two derived shards and at least twice as many data shards as derived shards.”

The patent application was filed on July 1, 2015 (14/789,815).

Partial updates for shingled magnetic recording devices
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (9,997,194) developed by Farhan, Munif M., Clyde Hill, WA, Slatton, Thomas Grant, Seattle, WA, and Laurence, Douglas Stewart, Mercer Island, WA, for a “partial updates for shingled magnetic recording devices.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Technologies are provided for partially updating shingled magnetic recording, (SMR) zones in SMR storage devices. An SMR storage device can receive and process a command to update a write pointer for an SMR zone to point to an arbitrary write position within the SMR zone. A partial SMR zone update command can be received and processed to modify part of the data stored in the SMR zone. A write position within the SMR zone where data to be modified is stored can be identified. Data stored in the SMR zone following the identified write position can be read to a temporary location and modified. A write pointer for the SMR zone can be updated to point to the identified write position. The modified data can then be written to the SMR zone, starting at the write position identified by the write pointer, or to another SMR zone of the storage device.”

The patent application was filed on September 25, 2017(15/714,676).

Cached volumes at storage gateways
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (9,996,465) developed by Salyers, David Carl, Seattle, WA, Vincent, Pradeep, Kenmore, WA, Khetrapal, Ankur, Seattle, WA, and Patiejunas, Kestutis, Sammamish, WA, for “cached volumes at storage gateways.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods and apparatus for supporting cached volumes at storage gateways are disclosed. A storage gateway appliance is configured to cache at least a portion of a storage object of a remote storage service at local storage devices. In response to a client’s write request, directed to at least a portion of a data chunk of the storage object, the appliance stores a data modification indicated in the write request at a storage device, and asynchronously uploads the modification to the storage service. In response to a client’s read request, directed to a different portion of the data chunk, the appliance downloads the requested data from the storage service to the storage device, and provides the requested data to the client.”

The patent application was filed on March 6, 2017 (15/451,262).

Secure erasure and repair of non-mechanical storage media
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Reno, NV, has been assigned a patent (9,990,382) developed by Dias, Paulo Miguel Cordeiro, Sao Paulo, Brazil, for a “secure erasure and repair of non-mechanical storage media.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Repair and secure erasure of non-mechanical storage devices may be performed. In at least some embodiments, a non-mechanical storage device may be detected and device information may be obtained for the non-mechanical storage device. Based, at least in part, on the device information, it may be determined whether the non-mechanical storage device is eligible for secure erasure. For an eligible device, a secure erase procedure may be initiated and success or failure of the secure erasure procedure may be reported. In at least some embodiments, firmware bugs may be detected and repaired when performing the secure erasure procedure.”

The patent application was filed on April 10, 2013 (13/860,346).

Optimizing resource utilization in distributed storage
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (9,990,147) developed by Sorenson, III, James Christopher, Seattle, WA, He, Gang, Woodinville, WA, and Goel, Saurabh, Seattle, WA, for “methods and apparatus for optimizing resource utilization in distributed storage systems.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods and apparatus for optimizing resource utilization in distributed storage systems. A data migration technique is described that may operate in the background in a distributed storage data center to migrate data among a fleet of storage units to achieve a substantially even and randomized data storage distribution among all storage units in the fleet. When new storage units are added to the fleet and coupled to the data center network, the new storage units are detected. Instead of processing and storing new data to the newly added storage units, as in conventional distributed storage systems, the new units are blocked from general client I/O to allow the data migration technique to migrate data from other, previously installed storage hardware in the data center onto the new storage hardware. Once the storage load on the new storage units is balanced with the rest of the fleet, the new storage units are released for general client I/O.”

The patent application was filed on April 27, 2015 (14/697,518).

Storage devices with cryptographic functionality
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (9,984,238) developed by Roth, Gregory Branchek, Seattle, WA, and Brandwine, Eric Jason, Haymarket, VA, for an “intelligent storage devices with cryptographic functionality.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage device can include processing and cryptographic capability enabling the device to function as a hardware security module,(HSM). This includes the ability to encrypt and decrypt data using a cryptographic key, as well as to perform processing using such a key, independent of whether that processing involves data stored on the device. An internal key can be provided to the drive, whether provided before customer software access or received wrapped in another key, etc. That key enables the device to perform secure processing on behalf of a user or entity, where that key is not exposed to other components in the network or environment. A key may have specified tasks that can be performed using that key, and can be discarded after use. In some embodiments, firmware is provided that can cause a storage device to function as an HSM and/or processing device with cryptographic capability.”

The patent application was filed on March 30, 2015 (14/673,311).

Managing data storage using storage policy specifications
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Reno, NV, has been assigned a patent (9,984,079) developed by Stickle, Thomas C., Saint James, NY, for a “managing data storage using storage policy specifications.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques are described for managing data storage using defined data storage management policies. In some situations, data storage may be managed using multiple supported storage mechanisms, such as different storage mechanisms of different types and/or in different locations. As one example, the described techniques may be performed to manage data that is available to a software program executing on a computer system, such as by caching a subset of the available data on one or more storage mechanisms to enhance later retrieval times of that data subset by the software program. In this example, the multiple supported storage mechanisms may include one or more storage mechanisms local to the computer system and one or more storage mechanisms remote from the computer system, and a defined data storage management policy for the software program may define particular types of data to store on particular storage mechanisms in particular manners.”

The patent application was filed on January 13, 2012 (13/350,658).