Symantec Assigned Two Patents

Providing increased scalability in deduplication storage systems
Symantec Corporation, Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,954,401) developed by Zhang, Xianbo, Madison, WI, Guo, Fanglu, Los Angeles, CA, and Wu, Weibao, Vandanis Heights, MN, for a “systems and methods for providing increased scalability in deduplication storage systems.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A computer-implemented method for providing increased scalability in deduplication storage systems may include, 1) identifying a database that stores a plurality of reference objects,, 2) determining that at least one size-related characteristic of the database has reached a predetermined threshold,, 3) partitioning the database into a plurality of sub-databases capable of being updated independent of one another,, 4) identifying a request to perform an update operation that updates one or more reference objects stored within at least one sub-database, and then, 5) performing the update operation on less than all of the sub-databases to avoid processing costs associated with performing the update operation on all of the sub-databases. Various other systems, methods, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.“

The patent application was filed on January 14, 2011 (13/007,301).

Opportunistic performance allocations in data storage systems
Symantec Operating Corporation, Mountain View, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,954,393) developed by Botes, Par, Mountain View, CA, for a “opportunistic performance allocations in data storage systems.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”System and method for the opportunistic allocation of copies of data across data storage resources in file systems. Embodiments may opportunistically and transparently trade storage space in a file system for performance. In embodiments, when data is stored to the file system, copies of the data may be opportunistically stored to two or more data storage resources. The data may then be opportunistically accessed from a less active resource if the resource storing a primary copy of the data is busy. The opportunistically stored copies of data remain online in the file system. In hierarchical file systems or tiered storage hierarchies, embodiments may allow higher-level storage tiers to “borrow” performance from lower-level tiers by opportunistically allocating copies of data from a higher-level tier within a lower-level tier. Copies of data stored on a data storage resource may be deleted if storage space is needed on that data storage resource.“

The patent application was filed on November 24, 2004 (10/997,724).