IBM Assigned Patent

IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (8,150,806) developed by eleven co-inventors for an "idempotent storage replication management."

They are Kenneth Wayne Boyd and Kenneth F. Day III, Tucson, AZ, Michael Factor, Haifa, Israel, Shachar Fienblit, Ein Ayala, Israel, Olympia Gluck, Haifa, Israel, Thomas Charles Jarvis, Tucson, AZ, John Earle Lindley, San Jose, CA, Robert Bruce Nicholson, Southsea, UK, Orit Nissan-Messing, Hod HaSharon, Israel, William James Scales, Fareham, UK, and Aviad Zlotnick, D.N.G.T., Israel.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A mechanism is provided for managing operations in a data storage system. A first storage controller monitors operation state information associated with a plurality of operation states stored in a data structure. The first storage controller detects a change in the operation state information. The change in the operation state information is in response to a managing entity updating the operation state information to a first operation state in the plurality of operation states in the data structure. Responsive to detecting the change in the operation state information, the first storage controller identifies a reference to a first operation associated with the first operation state updated by the managing entity. The first operation is one operation in a plurality of operations. The first storage controller performs the first operation associated with the first operation state."

The patent application was filed on Sept. 11, 2007 (11/853,286).