Pure Storage Assigned Twenty-Three Patents

Deferred rebuilding with alternate storage locations
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,340,993) developed by McShane, Niall J., Arlington Heights, IL, Baptist, Andrew D., Mt. Pleasant, WI, and Khadiwala, Ravi V., Bartlett, IL, for a “deferred rebuilding with alternate storage locations.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method includes, when a first batch rebuild threshold is met, a computing device of a dispersed storage network, (DSN) determining whether target storage units of a set of storage units of the DSN are available, where a data segment of data is dispersed storage error encoded into a set of encoded data slices, a number of encoded data slices that need rebuilding corresponds to the first batch rebuild threshold, and the number of encoded data slices is to be stored in the target storage units. When a target storage unit is unavailable, the method continues by delaying a batch rebuild process until the target storage unit is available or a second batch rebuild threshold is met. When the target storage unit becomes available before the second batch rebuild threshold is met, the method continues by executing the batch rebuild process for the number of encoded data slices.”

The patent application was filed on May 31, 2019 (16/427,420).

Generating integrity information in vast storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,340,988) developed by Grube, Gary W., Barrington Hills, IL, Markison, Timothy W., Mesa, AZ, Vas, Sebastien, Sunnyvale, CA, Mark, Zachary J., Chicago, IL, and Resch, Jason K., Warwick, RI, for “generating integrity information in a vast storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method includes encoding data via erasure coding to produce a plurality of data slices. The method further includes determining a plurality of identifiers corresponding to the data. The method further includes generating integrity information based on the plurality of identifiers by performing a cyclic redundancy check. The method further includes storing the plurality of data slices, the plurality of identifiers, and the integrity information in a storage system.”

The patent application was filed on June 29, 2021 (17/362,251).

Application-aware analytics for storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,340,939) developed by Barker, Jr., Robert, Cupertino, CA, and Sillifant, Andrew, Nottingham, Great Britain, for an “application-aware analytics for storage systems.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Providing application-aware analytics for storage systems, including: collecting, by a workload migration module, from a first host, first data describing performance characteristics of the first host and second data describing performance characteristics of one or more clients connected to the first host and associated with a workload supported by the first host, identifying, based on the data, a second host for servicing the workload, and deploying the workload in the second host.”

The patent application was filed on December 9, 2019 (16/707,611).

Storage management via remote console
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,340,837) developed by Vohra, Taher, Sunnyvale, CA, Botes, Par, Neelakantam, Naveen, Mountain View, CA, and Jibaja, Ivan, San Jose, CA, for a “storage system management via a remote console.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Providing volumes as a service, including: receiving a request to create a volume, determining whether a storage pool that includes one or more cloud-based storage systems includes sufficient resources for provisioning the volume, responsive to determining that the storage pool includes sufficient resources for provisioning the volume, create a volume that is supported by one or more of the cloud-based storage systems in the storage pool, and responsive to determining that the storage pool does not includes sufficient resources for provisioning the volume, expanding the resources that are included in the storage pool.”

The patent application was filed on July 30, 2019 (16/526,333).

Adjustable migration utilization
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,340,821) developed by Feigin, Boris, San Francisco, CA, Kleinerman, Andrew, Belmont, CA, Tumanova, Svitlana, Mountain View, CA, Vohra, Taher, Sunnyvale, CA, and Wang, Xiaohui, Mountain View, CA, for an “adjustable migration utilization.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for migration of data is provided. The method includes triggering a rebuild of data according to a first migration mechanism from a first storage drive to a second storage drive. Monitoring space utilization associated with the second storage drive, and adaptively switching the migration of the data from the first migration mechanism to a second migration mechanism based on the monitoring.”

The patent application was filed on September 14, 2020 (17/019,970).

Content masking in storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,340,800) developed by Sanvido, Marco, Belmont, CA, for a “content masking in a storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Content masking within a storage system includes: responsive to receiving a first request to access a portion of a stored snapshot, creating a transformed snapshot portion by applying a transformation specified in an access policy to one or more data objects contained within the portion of the stored snapshot, and presenting the transformed snapshot portion.”

The patent application was filed on December 9, 2019 (16/708,062).

Upgrading data in storage using background processes
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,340,785) developed by Cao, Jianting, Cui, Wentian, Sunnyvale, CA, Golden, Christopher, Emerald Hills, CA, Grunwald, David, San Francisco, CA, Smith, Scott, San Mateo, CA, and Zhou, Qi, Sunnyvale, CA, for “upgrading data in a storage system using background processes.“

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 August 14, 2020 (16/993,715).

Blinded passwords for distributed storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,336,428) developed by Resch, Jason K., Dhuse, Greg R., Chicago, IL, and Cilfone, Bart R., Marina del Rey, CA, for “blinded passwords for a distributed storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for execution by one or more processing modules of one or more computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN) the method begins by performing a key derivation function on a password and issuing a set of blinded passwords to a set of storage units. The method continues by receiving at least a decode threshold number of confidential information responses, regenerating a set of keys using the associated passkeys of the confidential information, decrypting a set of encrypted slices of the confidential information using the set of keys to reproduce a set of encoded data slices, and dispersed storage error decoding a decode threshold number of the set of reproduced encoded data slices to produce recovered data.”

The patent application was filed on April 22, 2020 (16/855,395).

Transmitting synchronized data streams in distributed storage network
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,334,425) developed by Grube, Gary W., Barrington Hills, IL, and Markison, Timothy W., Mesa, AZ, for “transmitting synchronized data streams in a distributed storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method begins by a processing module of a storage network receiving a first plurality of pairs of coded values corresponding to first data segments of a first data stream and a second data stream. The method continues with the processing module generating a received coded matrix to include a plurality of groups of selected coded values and when the received coded matrix includes a decode threshold number of pairs of coded values, generating a data matrix from the received coded matrix and an encoding matrix. The method continues with the processing module reproducing the first data segment of the first and second data streams, while maintaining the time alignment of the first and second data streams.”

The patent application was filed on July 6, 2020 (16/921,451).

Reliability based flash page sizing
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,334,254) developed by Kannan, Hari, Sunnyvale, CA, for a “reliability based flash page sizing.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage system includes solid-state storage devices and a storage controller operatively coupled to the solid-state storage devices, the storage controller including a processing device, to receive data to be programmed to a solid-state storage device of the plurality of solid-state storage devices. The processing device is further to determine a mode for programming a flash page storing the data at the solid-state storage device based on a required reliability for the data and an anticipated number of program/erase cycles associated with the data and transmit the data and the mode for programming the flash page storing the data to the solid-state storage device, wherein the mode causes the solid-state storage device to program the data to a first portion of the flash page and program parity data to a remaining portion of the flash page.”

The patent application was filed on March 29, 2019 (16/370,032).

Multi-level cell page writes
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,328,767) developed by Kannan, Hari, Sunnyvale, CA, and Kirkpatrick, Peter E., Los Altos, CA, for “multi-level cell page writes.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for page writes for triple or higher level cell flash memory is provided. The method includes receiving data in a storage system, from a client that is agnostic of page write requirements for triple or higher level cell flash memory, wherein the page write requirements specify an amount of data and a sequence of writing data for a set of pages to assure read data coherency for the set of pages. The method includes accumulating the received data, in random-access memory (RAM) in the storage system to satisfy the page write requirements for the triple or higher level cell flash memory in the storage system. The method includes writing at least a portion of the accumulated data in accordance with the page write requirements, from the RAM to the triple level cell, or the higher level cell, flash memory in the storage system as an atomic write.”

The patent application was filed on October 30, 2020 (17/085,362).

Multi-stage data recovery in distributed storage network
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,327,840) developed by Resch, Jason K., Chicago, IL, for a “multi-stage data recovery in a distributed storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A computing device for use in a distributed storage network (DSN) to recover corrupt encoded data slices. The computing device requests, from storage units of the DSN, encoded data slices corresponding to a data segment. In response, the computing device receives at least a decode threshold number of encoded data slices and at least one integrity error message that provides an indication of a corrupt encoded data slice, such that less than a decode threshold number of valid slices is received. Utilizing at least one correction approach involving stored integrity data, the computing device corrects the corrupt slice(s) to produce a decode threshold number of encoded data slices in order to decode the corresponding data segment. A variety of correction approaches may be employed, including a multi-stage approach that utilizes data from both valid and invalid slices.”

The patent application was filed on January 25, 2021 (17/248,424).

Storage unit including memories of different operational speeds for optimizing storage functions
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,327,689) developed by Cabral, Bruno Hennig, Kaczmarek, Joseph M., Chicago, IL, Khadiwala, Ravi V., Bartlett, IL, and Volvovski, Ilya, Chicago, IL, for a “storage unit including memories of different operational speeds for optimizing data storage functions.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A computing device includes an interface configured to interface and communicate with a dispersed storage network (DSN) a memory that stores operational instructions, and a processing module operably coupled to the interface and memory such that the processing module, when operable within the computing device based on the operational instructions, is configured to perform various operations. A computing device receives a data access request for an encoded data slice (EDS) associated with a data object. The computing device compares a slice name of the data access request with slice names stored within RAM. When the data access request slice name compares unfavorably with those stored slice names, the computing device transmits an empty data access response that includes no EDS to the other computing device without needing to access a hard disk drive (HDD) that stores EDSs. Alternatively, the computing device transmits a data access response that includes the EDS.”

The patent application was filed on November 17, 2020 (17/099,916).

Predictive data streaming in virtual storage
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,327,676) developed by Fernandez, Argenis, Redmond, WA, and Karr, Ronald, Palo Alto, CA, for a “predictive data streaming in a virtual storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method of predictive data streaming in a virtual storage system, including: identifying, for a plurality of data objects that have been migrated from a first tier of storage in a virtual storage system to a lower tier of storage, metadata describing one or more access patterns for the plurality of data objects, determining, based at least on the metadata describing the plurality of data objects, one or more data objects that have a greater likelihood of being accessed relative to other data objects among the plurality of data objects, and transferring, from the lower tier of storage, the one or more data objects that have a greater likelihood of being accessed relative to other data objects among the plurality of data objects.”

The patent application was filed on April 28, 2020 (16/860,856).

Storage vault tiering and migration in distributed storage network
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,327,674) developed by Resch, Jason K., and Leggette, Wesley B., Chicago, IL, for “storage vault tiering and data migration in a distributed storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods for use in a dispersed storage network (DS) to determine appropriate resources for storing data. An example method, implemented by one or more devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), includes obtaining storage characteristics relating to data stored in a first pool of storage units associated with a first storage tier, the data stored as a set of encoded data slices. Based on the storage characteristics, the method determines to move the data to a target storage pool of storage units associated with a second storage tier. The method also determines whether to re-encode the data for storage in the target storage pool of storage units. When not re-encoding the data, the method includes retrieving the set of encoded data slices, translating associated slice names into translated slice names, and facilitating storage of the encoded data slices in the target storage pool utilizing the translated slice names.”

The patent application was filed on November 21, 2017 (15/819,810).

Using estimated efficiency models to select processing unit in distributed storage network
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,321,174) developed by Khadiwala, Ravi V., Bartlett, IL, and Resch, Jason K., Chicago, IL, for “using estimated efficiency models to select a processing unit in a distributed storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for execution by a computing device of a dispersed or distributed storage network begins or continues by, for a data access request, accessing a plurality of estimated efficiency models of a plurality of processing units of the storage network, where an estimated efficiency model of the plurality of estimated efficiency models includes a list of estimated efficiency probabilities, and the list of estimated efficiency probabilities corresponds to a list of data access request types for a processing unit of the plurality of processing units. The method continues by selecting one of the processing units from the plurality of processing units based on the plurality of estimated efficiency models to produce a selected processing unit. The method continues by sending the data access request to the selected processing unit for execution.”

The patent application was filed on May 31, 2020 (16/888,761).

Vault transformation within storage network
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,321,172) developed by Gray, Adam M., Dhuse, Greg R., Chicago, IL, Baptist, Andrew D., Mt. Pleasant, WI, Khadiwala, Ravi V., Bartlett, IL, Leggette, Wesley B., Chicago, IL, Horan, Scott M., Clarendon Hills, IL, Borich, Franco V., Naperville, IL, Cilfone, Bart R., Marina del Rey, CA, and Scholl, Daniel J., Chicago, IL, for a “vault transformation within a storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method includes identifying an existing logical storage vault having existing dispersed storage coding properties for vault transformation, where a first set of storage units support the existing logical storage vault, and a data object of first data objects stored within the first set of storage units is stored as a first plurality of sets of encoded data slices in accordance with the existing dispersed storage coding properties. The method includes identifying a new logical storage vault having new dispersed storage coding properties, wherein storage units support the new logical storage vault. The method includes transforming the first data objects from being in accordance with the existing dispersed storage coding properties to being in accordance with the new dispersed storage coding properties to produce transformed first data objects. The method includes storing the transformed first data objects in the new logical storage vault supported by the storage units.”

The patent application was filed on April 3, 2020 (16/840,196).

Data loss prevention during transitions from replication source
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,321,006) developed by Grunwald, David, San Francisco, CA, Gill, Thomas, Brooks, Connor, Mountain View, CA, Touchette, Larry, Redwood City, CA, and Shukla, Saurabh, San Jose, CA, for a “data loss prevention during transitions from a replication source.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method of data loss prevention during transitions from a replication source, the method including: initiating a transition from using a first data repository as a source for data replication to using a second data repository as the source for data replication, prior to completing the transition and responsive to determining that one or more storage operations directed to the first data repository have not been replicated to the second data repository, delaying transition of the second data repository as the source for data replication, and responsive to completing the transition, promoting the second data repository as the source for data replication such that all storage operations received after completing the transition are directed to the second data repository.”

The patent application was filed on March 25, 2020 (16/829,849).

Storage efficiency of encrypted host system data
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,307,998) developed by Irwin, Jonas R., Livermore, CA, Miller, Ethan L., Santa Cruz, CA, and Davis, John D., San Francisco, CA, for a “storage efficiency of encrypted host system data.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage controller coupled to a storage array comprising one or more storage devices that performs at least one data reduction operation on decrypted data, encrypts the reduced data using a second encryption key to generate a second encrypted data, and stores the second encrypted data on the storage array.”

The patent application was filed on July 17, 2019 (16/514,831).

Optimized selection of participants in distributed data rebuild/verification
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,307,930) developed by Shirley, Jr., Thomas F., Wauwatosa, WI, Dhuse, Greg R., and Resch, Jason K., Chicago, IL, for an “optimized selection of participants in distributed data rebuild/verification.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A distributed storage network method begins by determining an encoded data slice to rebuild, determining a storage set of distributed storage units associated with the encoded data slice to rebuild, determining an historical performance level of each distributed storage unit of the storage set of distributed storage units, determining an estimated performance level of each distributed storage unit of the storage set of distributed storage units, selecting at least a decode threshold number of distributed storage units of the storage set of distributed storage units to produce selected distributed storage units, determining an encoded data slice partial aggregation scheme for the selected distributed storage units, sending encoded data slice partial request messages to the selected distributed storage units, and receiving encoded data slice partial response messages and extracting encoded data slice partials from the encoded data slice partial response messages to rebuild or verify the encoded data slice.”

The patent application was filed on October 9, 2020 (17/066,873).

Executing big data analytics pipeline using shared storage resources
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,307,894) developed by Jibaja, Ivan, Dorsett, Stefan, San Jose, CA, Jaikumar, Prashant, Sunnyvale, CA, Kim, Roy, Los Altos, CA, and Pullen, Curtis, San Jose, CA, for “executing a big data analytics pipeline using shared storage resources.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Executing a big data analytics pipeline in a storage system that includes compute resources and shared storage resources, including: receiving, from a data producer, a dataset, storing, within the storage system, the dataset, allocating processing resources to an analytics application, and executing the analytics application on the processing resources, including ingesting the dataset from the storage system.”

The patent application was filed on October 22, 2019 (16/659,798).

Responding to variable response time behavior in storage environment
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,307,772) developed by Colgrove, John, Los Altos, CA, Hayes, John, Mountain View, CA, Hong, Bo, Palo Alto, CA, Wang, Feng, Sunnyvale, CA, Miller, Ethan, Santa Cruz, CA, and Harmer, Craig, San Francisco, CA, for “responding to variable response time behavior in a storage environment.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system and method for effectively scheduling read and write operations among a plurality of solid-state storage devices. A computer system comprises client computers and data storage arrays coupled to one another via a network. A data storage array utilizes solid-state drives and Flash memory cells for data storage. A storage controller within a data storage array comprises an I/O scheduler. The storage controller is configured to receive a read request targeted to the data storage medium, and identify at least a first storage device of the plurality of storage devices which contains data targeted by the read request. In response to either detecting or predicting the first storage device will exhibit variable performance, the controller is configured to generate a reconstruct read request configured to obtain the data from one or more devices of the plurality of storage devices other than the first storage device.”

The patent application was filed on July 28, 2016 (15/221,686).

Distributed storage with data obfuscation
Pure Storage, Inc., Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,301,592) developed by Gladwin, S. Christopher, Resch, Jason K., Chicago, IL, and Shirley, Jr., Thomas F., Wauwatosa, WI, for “distributed storage with data obfuscation and method for use therewith.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A processing module of a dispersed storage network determines an obfuscation method is determined from a plurality of obfuscation methods for a data segment. The method continues with the processing module obfuscating the data segment according to the obfuscation method to produce an obfuscated data segment. The obfuscated data segment is encrypted and dispersed storage error encoded to produce a set of encoded data slices. The set of encoded data slices is then transmitted for storage in the dispersed storage network.”

The patent application was filed on November 6, 2017 (15/804,453).