EMC IP Holding/Dell Assigned Fifteen Patents

Tracking storage utilization
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company) has been assigned a patent (11675514) developed by Vankamamidi, Vamsi, Hopkinton, MA, Xu, Xinlei, and Han, Geng, Beijing, China, for “method and system for tracking storage utilization.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method is used for tracking storage utilization in a storage system. An amount of physical storage space available for use on an appliance is determined. The amount of storage space consumed by each type of data being stored on the appliance is normalized. These normalized amounts are used to determine an amount of storage space on the appliance consumed by the data. When a percentage of storage space consumed on the appliance exceeds a threshold, an alert is generated.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-07-30 (16/942919).

Promoting fractured volumes
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company) has been assigned a patent (11675673) developed by Meiri, David, Somerville, MA, and Tylik, Dmitry, Westborough, MA, for “system and method for promoting fractured volumes.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method, computer program product, and computing system for identifying a replication link failure between a first volume of a first storage array and a second volume of a second storage array, wherein a first storage protocol identifier is associated with each of the first volume and the second volume. One of the first volume and the second volume may be defined as inaccessible and the other of the first volume and the second volume as accessible, thus defining an inaccessible volume and an accessible volume. The first storage protocol identifier associated with the inaccessible volume may be replaced with a second storage protocol identifier. Access to the inaccessible volume may be provided via the second storage protocol identifier.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-10-13 (17/068928).

Encryption at rest using kMS and TPM
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company) has been assigned a patent (11677551) developed by Ponnuswamy, Senthil, Balakrishnan, Kalidas, Karadigudda, Mahadev, San Jose, CA, for an “encryption at rest using kMS and TPM.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “One example method includes receiving clear text data at a storage system, generating, at the storage system, a clear text data encryption key, requesting a key management system to encrypt the clear text data encryption key with a master key to create an encrypted data encryption key, and the requesting is performed by the storage system, receiving, at the storage system, the encrypted data encryption key from the key management system, encrypting, at the storage system, the clear text data with the clear text data encryption key to create encrypted data, and storing, together, the encrypted data and the encrypted data encryption key.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-10-30 (17/085506).

Computer program product for managing storage
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company) has been assigned a patent (11675497) developed by Han, Geng, Chen, Tao, and Gao, Jian, Beijing, China, for “method, device, and computer program product for managing storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method, an electronic device, and a computer program product for managing a storage system. The method includes: determining multiple storage units provided by multiple storage devices, each storage unit in the multiple storage units having a storage space allocated from a first number of storage devices among the multiple storage devices, dividing the multiple storage units into at least one storage unit group based on a total number of the multiple storage devices and the first number, each storage unit group in the at least one storage unit group including a second number of storage units, and storing, based on a logical address of to-be-stored data, the to-be-stored data into the at least one storage unit group. Embodiments of the present disclosure can allocate storage resources more reasonably and thus improve the performance of a storage system for processing sequential data.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-06-16 (17/349735).

Determining migrations between geographically distributed data centers
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA,(a Dell Technologies, Inc. company), has been assigned a patent (11675518) developed by Salamon, Victor, Edmonton, CA, and Kishore, Alampalli Ravi Sankar, Bangalore, India, for “determining migrations between geographically distributed data centers.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Methods, apparatus, and processor-readable storage media for determining migrations between geographically distributed data centers are provided herein. An example computer-implemented method includes obtaining information associated with data centers that are geographically distributed relative to one another, wherein the information includes: information related to migration factors specific to the respective geographic location of each of the data centers and information related to a respective set of processes of each of the data centers, automatically generating a migration schedule based at least in part on the obtained information, wherein the migration schedule comprises one or more times for migrating at least one of the processes of a first one of the data centers to a second one of the data centers, and automatically triggering at least one migration of the at least one process between the data centers based at least in part on the migration schedule.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-05-04 (17/307565).

Tracking utilization of data blocks in storage
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company), has been assigned a patent (11675789) developed by Shatsky, Yosef, Karnei Shomron, Israel, and Tal, Doron, Geva Carmel, Israel, for “tracking utilization of data blocks in a storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage control system manages a utilization of data blocks of a storage volume which is partitioned into data blocks having a unique block identifier (ID) and a same block size. The storage control system receives data items and assigns a respective unique data ID to each data item, which include consecutive data IDs. The data items are written to a free data block as a whole, and a record for the written data block is inserted into a node of a first tree structure. The record includes the unique block ID of the written data block, a first data ID of the data items, and a bitmap which maps the consecutive data IDs of the data items in the written data block, starting from the first data ID, to a respective bit whose value indicates whether the data item associated with the data ID is valid or invalid.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-06-29 (17/361666).

Leveraging cloud-based object storage to efficiently manage data from failed backup operation
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company), has been assigned a patent (11675668) developed by Yadav, Sunil, Chopra, Shelesh, and Behera, Amarendra, Bangalore, India, for “leveraging a cloud-based object storage to efficiently manage data from a failed backup operation.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Described is a system (and method) for leveraging data previously transferred to a cloud-based object storage as part of a failed backup when performing a subsequent backup operation. The system may leverage the native configuration of an object storage that may retain certain data even when a backup operation is classified as a failed operation. To provide such capabilities, the system may store specialized metadata that tracks which backups have failed and metadata indicating which backup data has not been committed. Accordingly, upon a subsequent backup operation, the system may expediently refer to the stored metadata to identify retained backup data that may be reused for the subsequent backup. As a result, the system may improve the efficiency of a backup procedure by reducing the amount of data required to be transferred from the backup source.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-08-31 (17/462670).

Managing storage devices, electronic device and computer-readable medium
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company), has been assigned a patent (11669245) developed by Shang, Rongrong, Han, Geng, Zhang, Xiaobo, Jia, Ruiyong, and Li, Xiongcheng, Beijing, China, for “method for managing storage devices, electronic device and computer-readable medium.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques provide for managing storage devices. Such techniques involve: combining storage devices in a redundant array of independent disks into a group of storage devices in an order of physical capacities of the storage devices, determining a first number of sets of storage devices based on a number of storage devices in the group and a threshold number of storage devices to be divided into each of the sets, and dividing, based on a configuration of the redundant array of independent disks, the group of storage devices into the first number of sets of storage devices, to optimize an effective capacity of the redundant array of independent disks.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-03-26 (16/831340).

Managing scrubbing operation in storage
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company), has been assigned a patent (11669262) developed by Liu, Bing, Tianjin, India, for “method, device, and product for managing scrubbing operation in storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present disclosure relates to a method, device and product for managing scrubbing operations in a storage system. In the method for managing scrubbing operations in a storage system, regarding a plurality of extents included in the storage system, respective usage states of the plurality of extents are obtained. A group of target extents in which a failure will occur are detected from the plurality of extents based on the respective usage states of the plurality of extents. A scrubbing interval of the scrubbing operations to be performed on the storage system is adjusted according to the detected group of target extents. A scrubbing operation is performed on at least one part of the plurality of extents in the storage system according to the adjusted scrubbing interval, so as to identify a failed extent.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-03-31 (16/836715).

Scaling out data protection infrastructure
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company), has been assigned a patent (11669494) developed by Liu, Cherami Min, Zhang, Ming, Yu, Jing, Shanghai, China, and Murti, Arun, Mission Viejo, CA, for “scaling out data protection infrastructure.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Embodiments for optimizing data storage instances in a cloud environment in which metadata is stored and accessed separately from content data in multiple different instances of data storage units. A metadata and content data storage instance optimization process determines the status of different instances of virtual storage resources for both metadata and content data. Full instances are powered down when they are not needed, empty instances are deleted, and data of partially full instances is moved to other appropriate instances to create empty instances that can be deleted. The data storage instance optimization process is provided as part of a data protection search process that provides an execution environment and user interface to the optimization process.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-05-22 (16/881233).

Managing wear level of storage
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company), has been assigned a patent (11669250) developed by Chen, Chi, and Fan, Huijuan, Chengdu, China, for “method, device, and computer program product for managing wear level of storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques manage a wear degree of a storage system. Such techniques involve: receiving respectively, for multiple storage devices in the storage system, multiple access histories of the multiple storage devices in a previous time period, determining respectively multiple wear increments of the multiple storage devices at a future time point based on the multiple access histories of the multiple storage devices, acquiring a wear balance degree of the storage system at the future time point based on the multiple wear increments of the multiple storage devices at the future time point, and migrating data among the multiple storage devices in response to determining that the wear balance degree satisfies a preset condition. Accordingly, it is possible to determine the wear degree of each storage device in the storage system more accurately and ensure that the wear degree of each storage device is in a balanced state.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-03-05 (17/193184).

Address mirroring of file system journal
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company), has been assigned a patent (11669501) developed by Brahma Raju, Suraj, Issaquah, WA, Laier, Max, Seattle, WA, and Steinke, Ronald, Tacoma, WA, for “address mirroring of a file system journal.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Techniques for address mirroring of a file system journal are presented. A transactional file system update can correspond to a write operation to be performed at a first participant node of a data storage system. A journal transfer component can transfer the transactional file system update from an initiator node of the data storage system to a first journal associated with the first participant node and recovery information relating to the update to a second journal associated with a second participant node of the data storage system. The recovery information can be determined based on the update. To facilitate the update, a journal descriptor block can be generated and sent to the second participant node, such block comprising the recovery information, which can include transaction state, block addresses involved in the transaction, error correction-related information, or a mirror block address set for the block addresses where desired.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-10-29 (17/083955).

Intelligent re-tiering of incremental backup data stored on cloud-based object storage
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company), has been assigned a patent (11669403) developed by Chitloor, Ravi Vijayakumar, Bengaluru, India, Yadav, Sunil, Chopra, Shelesh, Behera, Amarendra, Dethe, Tushar, Bangalore, India, Singh, Deependra, Kanpur, India, Dubey, Prabhat Kumar, Chikkanagamangala, India, Arora, Himanshu, Bangalore, India, and Bhanushali, Jigar, Valsad, India, for an “intelligent re-tiering of incremental backup data stored on a cloud-based object storage.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Described is a system for intelligent re-tiering of backup data stored on a cloud-based object storage. More specifically, the system may re-tier objects such that the system retains the ability to efficiently perform a full restore of backup data even when incremental backups are performed to a cloud-based object storage. To provide such a capability, the system may maintain a specialized metadata database that stores information indicating the backup time for each backup, and a list of objects required to perform a full restore to each of the backup times. Accordingly, when using a threshold time (e.g. expiry) to select object candidates for re-tiering, the system may leverage the metadata database to ensure that objects that may still need to be referenced are not unnecessarily moved to a lower storage tier.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-01-15 (17/150077).

Storage management
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company), has been assigned a patent (11669412) developed by Chang, Shaofeng, Zhu, Xiaoliang, Yu, Jing, Zhang, Ming, and Hu, Xiaolei, Shanghai, China, for “method, electronic device and computer program product for storage management.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method, electronic device, and computer-readable medium for storage management is disclosed. The method for storage management includes acquiring a data change rate of a data source, the data change rate indicating an occurrence rate of data to be backed up in the data source. The method also includes acquiring a recovery capability of a backup system to recover backed-up data and determining, based on the data change rate and the recovery capability, a backup strategy for backing up the data to be backed up.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-08-25 (17/411257).

In-line deduplication in distributed storage
EMC IP Holding Company LLC, Hopkinton, MA, (a Dell Technologies, Inc. company), has been assigned a patent (11669259) developed by Bono, Jean-Pierre, Westboro, MA, and De Souter, Marc A., Wayne, NJ, for “methods and systems for methods and systems for in-line deduplication in a distributed storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for deduplicating data comprising: obtaining, from a metadata node and by file system client executing on a client application node, a data layout, generating, by the client application node, a fingerprint for the data stored on the client application node, generating, by a memory hypervisor module executing on the client application node, at least one input/output (I/O) request specifying a location in a storage pool, wherein the location is determined using the data layout, issuing, by the memory hypervisor module, the at least one I/O request to the storage pool, wherein processing the at least one I/O request results in at least a portion of the data being stored at the location, and after issuing the at least one I/O request to the storage pool, transmitting the fingerprint to the metadata node, wherein the metadata node attempts to deduplicate the data using the fingerprint.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-04-29 (17/244591).