EMC Assigned Thirty-Two Patents

Offline annotation of future accesses
for improving performance of backup storage system
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,189,408) developed by Douglis, Frederick, Basking Ridge, NJ, Hsu, Windsor W., San Jose, CA, and Lin, Xing, Salt Lake City, UT, for a “system and method of offline annotation of future accesses for improving performance of backup storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system and method of offline annotation of future access are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a request is received at a storage system to read a portion of a file stored in the storage system. In response to the request, chunks of the file are cached in a cache memory of the storage system. In response to a request for cache space reclamation, the system then determines future request to the file based in part on a next access auxiliary table, (NAAT) associated with the file, which was created prior to receiving the request to read and stored in a persistent storage location of the storage system. Based on the determination, the system evicts from the cache memory at least one chunk of a read unit, (RU) whose next access is a furthest among the cached chunks.“

The patent application was filed on August 31, 2012 (13/601,885).

Packing and storing cached data in deduplicated cache system of storage system
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,189,402) developed by Smaldone, Stephen, Monroe Township, NJ, Wallace, Grant R., Pennington, NJ, Douglis, Frederick, Basking Ridge, NJ, Shilane, Philip N., Yardley, PA, and Shim, Hyong, Basking Ridge, NJ, for a “method for packing and storing cached data in deduplicated cache system of a storage system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A computer-implemented method for caching content in a cache memory device is disclosed. The method starts with receiving, at a cache manager, one or more data chunks to be cached in a cache memory device, where the one or more data chunks are retrieved from a persistent storage disk of a storage system in response to a read request of a region of a file. Then the one or more data chunks of a file extent is compressed using a predetermined compression algorithm, and the file extent is packed into a write-evict unit, (WEU) maintained in a random-access memory, (RAM) that has been open to store a plurality of file extents. In response to determining that the WEU is full, the cache manager writes the WEU from the RAM into the cache memory device.“

The patent application was filed on September 26, 2013 (14/038,699).

Combined memory and storage tiering
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,189,387) developed by Taylor, Kenneth J., Franklin, MA, Clark, Roy E., Hopkinton, MA, Naamad, Amnon, Brookline, MA, and Dar, Yaron, Sudbury, MA, for a “combined memory and storage tiering.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques for combined memory and storage tiering. For example, in one example, a method for managing placement of data in a data memory and storage system environment including at least one host computing device and at least one storage array includes the following steps. A memory and storage tier architecture is maintained across the data memory and storage system environment including one or more tiers resident on the host computing device and one or more tiers resident on the storage array. A user is enabled to:,(i) specify on which of the one or more tiers resident on the host computing device and the one or more tiers resident on the storage array to store data associated with the execution of an application program, and/or, (ii) specify a level of service by which the system automatically manages which of the one or more tiers resident on the host computing device and the one or more tiers resident on the storage array to store data associated with the execution of the application program.“

The patent application was filed on June 24, 2013 (13/925,143).

Perform instant restore of physical machines
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,189,345) developed by Khanduja, Vaibhav, Cupertino, CA, Mandic, Vladimir, Putti, Joe Robert, and Nair, Rajesh, San Jose, CA, for a “method to perform instant restore of physical machines.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method of performing data restore includes connecting, using a boot capable network communication interface, to a backup server over a data network, the backup server having stored thereon a block based backup data volume, accessing the block based backup data volume via the data network as a remotely readable storage resource, and using operating system data read from the block based backup data volume to perform a network boot operation.“

The patent application was filed on September 25, 2013 (14/037,259).

Generic process for determining child to parent inheritance
for fast provisioned or linked clone virtual machines
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,189,342) developed by von Thenen, David, Hopkinton, MA, Kwong, Steven, and Nahum, Nimrod, Hopkinton, MA, for a “generic process for determining child to parent inheritance for fast provisioned or linked clone virtual machines.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for backing up virtual machine, VM) data is described, and includes, in response to a request to back up a first VM of a first storage system, determining a disk layout of a VM disk associated with the first VM, the disk layout having nodes in a hierarchical structure, each node corresponding to a VM. The method includes traversing the disk layout to derive a first storage location of a first VM configuration data of the first VM and a second storage location of a second VM configuration data associated with a second VM that is a parent VM to the first VM, identifying a first VM snapshot from the first configuration data and a second VM snapshot from the second configuration data, determining a list of changed blocks representing data blocks that are different between the first and second VM snapshots, and backing up the changed blocks.“

The patent application was filed on May 29, 2014 (14/290,898).

Predicting single-disk failures
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,189,309) developed by Ma, Ao, Palo Alto, CA, and Hsu, Windsor W., San Jose, CA, for a “system and method for predicting single-disk failures.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques for predicting single-disk failures are described herein. According to one embodiment, first values of a predetermined diagnostic parameter collected from a set of known working disks and a set of known failed disks of a storage system are received. An optimal threshold of the received first values of the predetermined diagnostic parameter is determined based on a quantile distribution of the first values against a plurality of threshold candidates. A potential risk of disk failures of one or more disks of a target storage system is determined based on second values of the predetermined diagnostic parameter collected from the one or more disks of the target storage system in view of the optimal threshold.“

The patent application was filed on September 25, 2013 (14/037,202).

Determining optimal time period for data movement from source storage to target storage
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,185,188) developed by Li, Junxu, Pleasanton, CA, for a “method and system for determining optimal time period for data movement from source storage to target storage.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Techniques for determining optimal time window for data movement from a source storage system to a target storage system are described herein. According to one embodiment, statistics data is received representing historic performance statistics over a predetermined period of time by a source storage system, where the historic performance statistics include resource consumption of a plurality of resources including at least one of a processor, memory, input-output, IO) transactions, and network bandwidth. An analysis is performed by an analysis module executed by a processor on the historic performance statistics to determine an optimal time window within the predetermined time period for data movement from the source storage system to a target storage system based on the analysis. A scheduler executed by the processor is to schedule the data movement from the source storage system to the target storage system according to the optimal time window.“

The patent application was filed on February 28, 2013 (13/781,316).

Cluster storage using subsegmenting for efficient storage
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,183,216) developed by Reddy, Sazzala, Sunnyvale, CA, Maheshwari, Umesh, Lee, Edward K., San Jose, CA, and Patterson, R. Hugo, Los Altos, CA, for a “cluster storage using subsegmenting for efficient storage.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Cluster storage is disclosed. A data stream or a data block is received. The data stream or the data block is broken into segments. For each segment, a cluster node is selected, and a portion of the segment smaller than the segment is identified that is a duplicate of a portion of a segment already managed by the cluster node.“

The patent application was filed on February 25, 2014 (14/189,571).

Policy based over sampling with replacement
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,183,201) developed by Yang, Guangxin, Ren, Yi, Ao, Jianwang, Beijing, China, and Welton, Caleb E., Foster City, CA, for a “policy based over sampling with replacement.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for process data. In some embodiments, this includes receiving a desired sample size from a user, increasing the desired sample size based on a policy, using the increased desired sample size to determine a number of samples to take from a database segment, wherein the database segment includes a portion of a dataset, generating a sub-dataset based on the determined number of samples to take from the database segment, wherein the sub-dataset only includes identifiers, joining the generated sub-dataset with the dataset, and storing the joined dataset in a storage device.“

The patent application was filed on December 20, 2012 (13/722,425).

Storage system polling reduction
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,182,917) developed by Wu, Rongzhang, Fan, Xiao Hua, Wu, Yuanjie, Shanghai, China, Yin, Feng, Sichuan, China, Gao, Hui, Shanghai, China, and Robideau, Brian, Bellingham, MA, for a “storage system polling reduction.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Described are methods, systems, and apparatus for reducing storage system polling when collecting and providing storage system state data. A plurality of poll requests for storage system state data is received. For each poll request of the plurality of poll requests, a poll request arrival time associated with the poll request is stored. A first poll is initiated to collect first storage system state data for a first poll request of the plurality of poll requests. A first poll start time associated with the first poll is stored. The first poll is completed, forming the first storage system state data. For each poll request of the plurality of poll requests, the first storage system state data is provided for the poll request provided that the poll request arrival time is before the first poll start time.“

The patent application was filed on January 7, 2014 (14/149,609).

Flash cache management
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,177,670) developed by Derbeko, Philip, Modiin, Israel, Benhanokh, Zvi Gabriel, Natanzon, Assaf, Tel Aviv, Israel, Don, Arieh, Newton, MA, Eyal, Anat, Tel Aviv, Israel, and Veprinsky, Alexandr, Brookline, MA, for a “method and apparatus for flash cache management.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Example embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and a system for improving performance of flash cache memory, such as in a host of a storage environment, for example, by preventing a cache cell from reaching an operation limit. The method includes determining that a number of operations to a first cell of a flash memory has reached a threshold and managing the flash memory according to the determination to prevent a failure of a second cell of the flash memory.“

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2013 (14/041,290).

Key management in full disk and file-level encryption
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,177,160) developed by Farquhar, Ian B., Glenwood, Australia, for a “key management in full disk and file-level encryption.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture for key management in full disk and file-level encryption are provided herein. A method includes fetching a distinct cryptographic key from a secure module in connection with a request to perform one of a decryption operation and an encryption operation on at least one of an individual file and an individual sector within a storage device on a computing device, using the distinct cryptographic key to perform the one of a decryption operation and an encryption operation on the at least one of an individual file and an individual sector within the storage device on the computing device, and discarding the distinct cryptographic key subsequent to said performing the one of a decryption operation and an encryption operation on at least one of an individual file and an individual sector within the storage device on the computing device.“

The patent application was filed on September 27, 2013 (14/039,242).

Data migration techniques
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,176,902) developed by Long, Matthew, Uxbridge, MA, Clark, Roy E., Hopkinton, MA, Duprey, Dennis, Raleigh, NC, Harvey, David, Newton, MA, and O’Brien, III, Walter A., Westborough, MA, for a “data migration techniques.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Described are techniques for migrating data. A source data storage system includes a source device and a target data storage system includes a target device. A passive path and an active path are provided for a host to access data of a logical device. The host recognizes the passive path and the active path as paths to the logical device. The passive path is between the host and the source data storage system. The active path is between the host and the target data storage system and used in connection with proxying requests directed to the logical device received from the host through the target data storage system while migrating data for the logical device from the source device to the target device. Migrating is controlled by a migration module executing on the target data storage system that copies data from the source device to the target device.“

The patent application was filed on June 27, 2012 (13/535,018).

Managing provisioning of storage in storage systems
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,176,681) developed by Xu, Yan, Boston, MA, Yu, Piers Changyong, Yang, Alex Zhongbing, Shanghai, China, Brundage, Michael C., Lexington, SC, Viswanadha, Kamakshi, Lexington, MA, Si, Yining, Shrewsbury, MA, and Ai, Steve Zhuxiong, Shanghai, China, for a “managing provisioning of storage in storage systems.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method is used in managing provisioning of storage in storage systems. Whether a logical object requires a slice for recovering the logical object is determined. Based on the determination, storage for the slice is provisioned. The slice is provided to the logical object.“

The patent application was filed on March 15, 2013 (13/832,636).

Fast-zeroing in file system
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,176,675) developed by Wang, Wengang, Zhou, Yingchao, Beijing, China, McGrath, William K., Wake Forest, NC, Guo, Jun, and Zhai, Jia, Beijing, China, for a “fast-zeroing in a file system.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A technique performs a host write operation on behalf of a host computer. The technique involves receiving a write request from the host computer, and providing a data write command and a zero write command to backend storage in response to the write request from the host computer. The backend storage maintains a file on behalf of the host computer. Additionally, the data write command includes host data to be written to the file. Furthermore, the zero write command defines a field of zeroes to be written to the file. The technique further involves sending an acknowledgement to the host computer, the acknowledgement serving as a response to the write request from the host computer.“

The patent application was filed on December 5, 2013 (14/098,271).

Cluster file system comprising storage server units
each having scale-out network attached storage cluster
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,171,009) developed by Faibish, Sorin, Newton, MA, Bent, John M., Los Alamos, NM, Gupta, Uday, Westford, MA, and Pedone, Jr., James M., West Boylston, MA, for a “cluster file system comprising storage server units each having a scale-out network attached storage cluster.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A cluster file system comprises storage server units each configured for communication with a plurality of clients over a network. At least one of the storage server units comprises an object storage server, an object storage target associated with the object storage server, a metadata server, a metadata target associated with the metadata server, and a scale-out network attached storage cluster. The scale-out network attached storage cluster comprises storage directories corresponding to respective ones of the object storage and metadata targets. The object storage server and its associated object storage target may form part of a first storage tier of the storage server unit, and a plurality of nodes of the scale-out network attached storage cluster may form part of a second storage tier of the storage server unit. Parallel log-structured file system, (PLFS) middleware may be used to control movement of data between the first and second storage tiers.“

The patent application was filed on June 21, 2013 (13/924,022).

File based incremental block backup from user mode
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,171,002) developed by Mam, Neelabh, and Madiraju Varadaraju, Kiran Kumar, Bangalore, India, for a “file based incremental block backup from user mode.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system for incremental backup comprises a storage device and a processor. The processor is configured to: (1) start fileIO ETW tracking, wherein a file changed block info is tracked in map(s), wherein each of the map(s) tracks writes indicated via a node of a set of nodes, (2) receive request for an incremental backup of one or more files of one or more volumes, wherein the map(s) track changed blocks from writes to the one or more files, (3) halt writes to the one or more files and queue writes to the one or more files after halting, (4) freeze the map(s) of changed blocks, (5) change file IO ETW tracking, wherein the change block info is tracked to a new set of maps, (6) determine changed blocks using the map(s), (7) write changed blocks to a backup volume, and (8) release writes to the one or more files.“

The patent application was filed on June 24, 2013 (13/924,777).

Event/alert enrichment
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,170,951) developed by He, Lida, Sleepy Hollow, NY, Oztekin, Erkan, Bayside, NY, Kandasamy, Thulasinathan, Karnataka, India, and Lam, Cheuk, Yorktown Heights, NY, for a “method and apparatus for event/alert enrichment.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and apparatus to provide alert enrichment in a cloud storage system. In one embodiment, the system performs alert/event identification with information from an identity matching service for the components of the cloud storage system to generate a resource identifier for the component associated with a first one of the processed alerts/events, and use the resource identifier to identify a service, platform, virtual machine, virtual application, virtual data center, organization and/or platform component associate with the first one of the processed alerts/events.“

The patent application was filed on March 30, 2012 (13/435,017).

Automatic data padding
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,170,942) developed by Derbeko, Philip, Modiin, Israel, Benhanokh, Zvi Gabriel, Tel Aviv, Israel, Don, Arieh, Newton, MA, Dar, Yaron, Sudbury, MA, and Eyal, Anat, Tel Aviv, Israel, for a “system, apparatus, and method of automatic data padding.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A computer-executable method, system, and computer program product for managing a data storage system, wherein the data storage system includes a host-cache and a data storage array, the computer-executable method, system, and computer program product comprising receiving an I/O request, processing the I/O request by locating data related to the I/O request and aligning the I/O request with the data to create an aligned portion of data, and updating the data storage array with the aligned portion of data.“

The patent application was filed on December 31, 2013 (14/145,313).

Processing data storage system configuration information
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,170,737) developed by Gugliemino, Joseph, Berlin, MA, Castelli, Brian A., Fuquay Varina, NC, and Todd, Stephen J., Shrewsbury, MA, for a “processing data storage system configuration information.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method is used in processing data storage system configuration information. A capture tool is used to create a template from a configuration of a first data storage system. The template is published, and a configuration engine is used to apply the template to configuring a second data storage system.“

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2009 (12/570,136).

Lightweight appliance for content storage
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,165,009) developed by Romanovskiy, Alexey, St. Petersburg, Russia, Wang, Tianqing, Shanghai, China, Pakhomov, Andrey, and Zalunin, Vasily, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, for a “lightweight appliance for content storage.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for lightweight storage of content is disclosed. In some embodiments, a request to store a photograph is received from a user. The content of the photograph is then compressed. A list of multi-image container files associated with the user and with sufficient storage space available to store the compressed content of the photograph is then retrieved. The compressed content of the photograph is stored in a multi-image container file. Finally, the modified multi-image file is stored in a storage device.“

The patent application was filed on March 14, 2013 (13/804,893).

Rolling upgrades of data traits
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,164,751) developed by van Rotterdam, Jeroen, Berkeley, CA, and Polman, Mark, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, for a “system and method of rolling upgrades of data traits.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for managing a computing environment, such as a cloud data repository. In some embodiments, this includes modifying an object or a component of an object at runtime and storing the modified object or modified component of an object in a storage device. In some embodiments, the component of an object modified may include traits. In some embodiments, objects or traits may have more than one version.“

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2011 (13/250,992).

Intelligent configuration for snapshot based backups
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,164,691) developed by Chopra, Shelesh, Bangalore, India, Matthies, Eric Christian, Millis, MA, and Wroten, Christopher Francis, Franklin, MA, for a “intelligent configuration for snapshot based backups.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”This disclosure relates to a method, article of manufacture, and apparatus of intelligent configuration for snapshot based backups. In some embodiments, this includes obtaining a snapshot method, locating a source to be backed up, locating a paring configuration, if the paring configuration cannot be located, locating one or more target devices in a storage group using the snapshot method, and if the pairing configuration is located, obtaining one or more corresponding target devices from the configuration and validating the one or more corresponding target devices within the storage group using the snapshot method.“

The patent application was filed on March 15, 2013 (13/843,109).

Dynamic path-selection for improving I/O performance
in virtual provisioned storage arrays with data striping
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,164,681) developed by Balakrishnan, Ajith, Bangalore, India, Benhanokh, Zvi Gabriel, Tel Aviv, Israel, Don, Arieh, Newton, MA, and Ben-Amos, Eitan, Karkur, Israel, for a “method and apparatus for dynamic path-selection for improving I/O performance in virtual provisioned storage arrays with data striping.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Example embodiments of the present invention relate to a method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for sending an I/O over a preferred path. The method includes determining a preferred path to an address range of a virtual storage unit striped across a plurality of disks of a data storage system and sending an I/O for data comprising the address range over the preferred path.“

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2014 (14/231,151).

Sharing encryption-related metadata between host and external intermediate device
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,160,526) developed by Raizen, Helen, Jamaica Plain, MA, Bappe, Michael Emerald, Loveland, CO, Epstein, Edith, Arlington, MA, Kabra, Atul, New Delhi, India, Contreras, Cesareo, Northbridge, MA, Natanzon, Assaf, Tel Aviv, Israel, and Sandstrom, Harold Martin, Belmont, MA, for a “sharing encryption-related metadata between a host and an external intermediate device.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method performed in a device is provided. The method includes, (a) receiving key identification information from a key controller module on an external host,, (b) obtaining a key identified by the key identification information from an external key server,, (c) decrypting encrypted data from an encrypted storage system using the key, and, (d) processing the decrypted data. A corresponding computer program product is also provided.“

The patent application was filed on May 22, 2013 (13/900,150).

Associated object properties
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,158,828) developed by Britton, James F., Framingham, MA, Krishnan, Sriram, Shrewsbury, MA, Wu, Yuanjie, Shanghai, China, Revur, Pradyumna, Northborough, MA, Subramanian, Krishnakumar, Shrewsbury, MA, Premkumar, Subbulakshmi, Sudbury, MA, and Laporte, Russell R., Webster, MA, for a “techniques using associated object properties.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Described are techniques for processing a request received at a business logic provider from a client. The request includes a snapshot identifier uniquely identifying a snapshot having a snapshot object in a first data model and requests properties of a storage device providing a data source for the snapshot identified by the snapshot identifier. The snapshot object is requested from, and returned by, a snapshot provider. The business logic provider requests, from a storage device provider using a first property of the snapshot object, a storage device object corresponding to the storage device identified by the first property. The storage device provider returns the storage device object to the business logic provider. The storage device object is then returned to the client.“

The patent application was filed on December 19, 2011 (13/329,469).

Efficient file-based backups by reverse mapping
changed sectors/blocks on NTFS volume to files
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,158,804) developed by Rangapuram, Ravi Kishore Yadav, Bangalore, India, and Bhat Kasargod, Sriprasad, Bellevue, WA, for a “method and system for efficient file-based backups by reverse mapping changed sectors/blocks on an NTFS volume to files.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Changed files since a last backup are identified to be backed up by reverse mapping changed blocks to files. Block identifiers specifying blocks on a storage volume are received. A location of a file table zone is determined. The file table zone stores a file table of records. Each record stores a last modified timestamp for a file associated with the record. An intersection is created from the file table zone location and the block identifiers. The intersection includes a subset of records where each record in the subset is associated with a block from the file table zone that corresponds to a block identified by the block identifiers. The subset is parsed to extract timestamps. The timestamps are compared with the storage volume’s last backup date. If the associated file was modified after the last backup date, a determination is made that the file should be backed up.“

The patent application was filed on December 23, 2011 (13/336,894).

Cataloging storage arrays
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,158,763) developed by Singhal, Upanshu, Bangalore, India, for a “cataloging storage arrays.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”This disclosure relates to a method and a system for cataloging storage arrays and devices. Exemplary systems create, update, and store indexes, and also provide a search facility to search indexed information. Cataloging creates, stores and updates indexes of all the configuration of a storage array or device, as well as snapshots of applications. Exemplary methods comprise identifying a storage array, conducting a storage discovery, obtaining a complete storage array information, and creating an index.“

The patent application was filed on March 30, 2012 (13/436,614).

Elastic provisioning
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,158,734) developed by Prabhakara, Janardhan D., Burck, Brian D., Richardson, TX, Perkins, Bennett L., Houston, TX, Gibson, Jeffrey B., Frisco, TX, and Biddappa, Sukesh Kumar, Murphy, TX, for a “method and apparatus for elastic provisioning.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and apparatus for a cloud storage system to add a first one of a compute, network, and/or storage layer resource to the service, provision the added first one of the compute, network, and/or storage layer resources, and activate the provisioned first one of the compute, network, and/or storage layer resources into the already provisioned service with minimal interruption of the service to elastically add a resource to the service.“

The patent application was filed on March 30, 2012 (13/435,317).

Efficient file browsing using key value databases for virtual backups
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,158,632) developed by Xing, Jian, Pleasanton, CA, for a “efficient file browsing using key value databases for virtual backups.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for protecting data. This includes using a directory to identify keys in a key value database, walking through each identified key to identify values, identifying a file based on the walk through, and restoring the identified file to a storage device.“

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2011 (13/251,188).

Power-saving mechanisms for dynamic mirror service policy
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,158,466) developed by Sahin, Adnan, Needham, MA, More, Sachin, Northborough, MA, Crow, Preston, Ashland, MA, and Arnan, Ron, Brookline, MA, for a “power-saving mechanisms for a dynamic mirror service policy.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Described is storage system and method for reducing power consumption. The storage system has first and second physical disks configured to provide mirroring. The first physical disk is placed into a power-saving mode of operation, while the second physical disk is in an active mode of operation responding to read and write requests. The first physical disk transitions from the power-saving mode of operation to an active mode of operation for destaging writes pending from cache to the first physical disk, while the second physical disk responds to read and write requests. The second physical disk transitions from the active mode of operation to the power-saving mode of operation, while the first physical disk responds to read and write requests.“

The patent application was filed on June 29, 2007 (11/770,837).

Secure and anonymous distributed authentication
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, has been assigned a patent (9,154,296) developed by O’Connell, Mark A., Westborough, MA, for a “secure and anonymous distributed authentication.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method performed by a client includes, (i) receiving a lease from a tenant including a core including lease terms and an identification of the tenant and a first signature that cryptographically combines the core and a secret code associated with the tenant, the secret code being unknown to the client,, (ii) sending a storage request to a central entity for access to remote storage including, (a) a body including the core and an object identifier, which identifies an object stored in the remote storage and, (b) a second signature that cryptographically combines the body and the first signature, and, (iii) receiving a storage response including the object from the remote storage when, (I) a computation performed by the central entity of the second signature based on the secret code, the core, and the body matches the second signature and, (II) the storage request complies with the lease terms.“

The patent application was filed on September 28, 2012 (13/630,335).