IBM Assigned Two Patents

SAN with centralized management

IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,327,004) developed by twenty-one co-inventors for a "storage area network methods and apparatus with centralized management."

The co-inventors are Duane M. Baldwin, Rochester, MN, Paul L. Bradshaw, Barbara J. Camacho, San Jose, CA, Ron H. Clark, San Francisco, CA, Alireza R. Daryan, San Jose, CA, Daniel G. Douglas, Los Gatos, CA, Roman D. Druker, Douglas P. Dunham, David W. Groves, San Jose, CA, Allen R. Heitman, Rochester, MN, Vincent J. Hoang, Nancy L. Hobbs, San Jose, CA, Lisa A. Huston, Rochester, MN, Gregory J. Knight, Brooklyn Park, MN, David L. Merbach, Rochester, MN, Amir Nakhforoush, Vinh-Thuan Nguyen-Phuc, San Jose, CA, Gregory J. Tevis, Tuscon, AZ, William R. Yonker, Rochester, MN, Michael L. Lamb, and Raymond M. Swank, San Jose, CA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Novel storage area networks (SANs) and methods of operation thereof utilize a plurality of hosts coupled via an interconnect with one or more storage units. A manager device, process or other functionality in communication with a plurality of agent processes, devices or other functionality, each of which is associated with a host. The agents identify attributes of (i) their associated hosts, (ii) interconnect to which that host is coupled, and/or (iii) storage units to which that host is coupled via the interconnect. The manager responds to these attributes identified by the agents to manage the SAN. The manager can be implemented on a first digital data processor and the hosts on further digital data processors. These digital data processors can be coupled via a first network, e.g., an IP or other network, to support communications between the manager and the agents. A second network, e.g., SCSI and/or fiber channel based fabric, separate from the first network, can be utilized as the interconnect between the hosts and the storage devices."

The patent application was filed on Dec. 20, 2006 (11/614,045).

Reducing occupancy of digital storage devices

IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,327,061) developed by Manfred Boldy, Horb am Neckar, Germany, Peter Sander, Mannheim, Germany, and Hermann Stamm-Wilbrandt, Eberbach, Germany, for "reducing occupancy of digital storage devices."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A digital data storage device physically stores blocks of identical data only once on its storage medium wherein a second or even further identical blocks are stored only as reference referring to the first block of these identical blocks. By this technique, storage of duplicate data is most effectively avoided on the lowest storage level of the disk storage device, even in cases where identical blocks are written by different operating systems. In the preferred embodiment, the underlying storage medium (magnetic hard disk, optical disk, tape, or M-RAM) is segmented into two areas, the first area particularly comprising a relatively small block reference table and the remaining physical storage area for storing real blocks of information."

The patent application was filed on Sept. 28, 2010 (12/892,468)