IBM/Cleversafe Assigned Twenty Patents

Identifying task execution resource of dispersed storage network
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,838,478) developed by Grube, Gary W., Barrington Hills, IL, and Resch, Jason K., Chicago, IL, for an “identifying a task execution resource of a dispersed storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method begins by a plurality of dispersed storage network, (DSN) units of a DSN determining to perform a DSN level task for a range of DSN addresses. The method continues with each of the plurality of DSN units executing a scoring function using one or more properties of the range of DSN addresses and one or more properties of each of the plurality of DSN units to produce a scoring resultant. The method continues with each of the plurality of DSN units identifying a DSN unit of the plurality of DSN units to execute the DSN level task based on the scoring resultant. The method continues with the identified DSN unit executing the DSN level task for the range of DSN addresses.”

The patent application was filed on May 26, 2015 (14/721,723).

Detecting utilization imbalance between dispersed storage network storage
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,836,352) developed by Resch, Jason K., Cilfone, Bart, Leggette, Wesley, and Gladwin, S. Christopher, Chicago, IL, for a “detecting a utilization imbalance between dispersed storage network storage units.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method begins by a processing module of a dispersed storage network, (DSN) obtaining utilization information regarding a plurality of storage units of the DSN, where first and second sets of storage units support a first logical storage vault. The method continues with the processing module detecting a utilization imbalance between a first storage unit of the first set of storage units and a second storage unit of the second set of storage units based on the utilization information, where the first and second storage units are not a common storage unit. The method continues with the processing module executing a data storage function regarding the first logical storage vault based on the utilization imbalance.”

The patent application was filed on July 10, 2014 (14/327,585).

Data storage system and method by shredding and deshredding
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,830,225) developed by de la Torre, Douglas R., Kirkland, WA, and Young, David W., North Bend, WA, for a “data storage system and method by shredding and deshredding.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system and method for data storage by shredding and deshredding of the data allows for various combinations of processing of the data to provide various resultant storage of the data. Data storage and retrieval functions include various combinations of data redundancy generation, data compression and decompression, data encryption and decryption, and data integrity by signature generation and verification. Data shredding is performed by shredders and data deshredding is performed by deshredders that have some implementations that allocate processing internally in the shredder and deshredder either in parallel to multiple processors or sequentially to a single processor. Other implementations use multiple processing through multi-level shredders and deshredders. Redundancy generation includes implementations using non-systematic encoding, systematic encoding, or a hybrid combination. Shredder based tag generators and deshredder based tag readers are used in some implementations to allow the deshredders to adapt to various versions of the shredders.”

The patent application was filed on December 1, 2014 (14/556,657).

Adjusting data storage address mapping in maintenance free storage container
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,830,222) developed by Grube, Gary W., Barrington Hills, IL, and Markison, Timothy W., Mesa, AZ, for an “adjusting a data storage address mapping in a maintenance free storage container.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method includes sending, by a computing device, an access request to one or more site controllers. The method further includes identifying, by a site controller, storage containers based on DSN addresses. The method includes sending, by the site controller, the access request to the identified storage containers. The method includes interpreting, by a container controller, the access request to identify storage units affiliated with some of the DSN addresses. The method includes determining, by the container controller, whether the storage units are in a storage failure mode. The method includes when the storage units are in the storage failure mode, determining, by the container controller, whether to rebuild, to change virtual to physical address mapping, or to migrate encoded data slices. The method includes, when the encoded data slices are to be rebuild, facilitating, by the container controller, rebuilding of the encoded data slices.”

The patent application was filed on September 3, 2015 (14/844,145).

Selecting storage units to store dispersed storage data
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,823,861) developed by Grube, Gary W., Barrington Hills, IL, and Markison, Timothy W., Mesa, AZ, for a “method and apparatus for selecting storage units to store dispersed storage data.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The method begins with a processing module determining whether to reconstruct data corresponding to a plurality of data slices when the plurality of data slices is to be transferred from a first type of memory device to a second type of memory device. The method continues with the processing module retrieving the plurality of data slices from a first set of memory devices that are of the first type of memory, reconstructing at least a portion of the data from the plurality of data slice in accordance with a first error coding dispersal function to produce reconstructed data, encoding the reconstructed data in accordance with a second error coding dispersal function to produce a second plurality of data slices, and storing the second plurality of data slices in a second set of memory devices that are of the second type of memory when the data is to be reconstructed.”

The patent application was filed on May 30, 2014 (14/292,585).

Cache for file-based dispersed storage
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,811,405) developed by Motwani; Manish, and Volvovski; Ilya, Chicago, IL, for a “cache for file-based dispersed storage.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method obtains at least part of a file from a dispersed storage network, (DSN) memory, and stores it in a data object cache. When the file is changed, a determination is made about where to store the changed file portions: in the data object cache or in the DSN. The changed file portions, for example a new copy of the part of the file obtained from the DSN, are encoded utilizing an error coding dispersal storage function, and stored in either the data object cache, or in the DSN memory.”

The patent application was filed on July 8, 2014 (14/325,425).

Dispersed storage network with slice rebuilding
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,798,621) developed by Resch, Jason K., Chicago, IL, and Baptist, Andrew, Mt. Pleasant, WI, for a “dispersed storage network with slice rebuilding and methods for use therewith.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In a dispersed storage network where slices of secure user data are stored on geographically separated storage units, (44), a managing unit, (18) connected to the network, (20) may seek to broadcast and update secure access control list information across the network, (20). Upon a target device, (e.g., devices 12, 14, 16, 18, or 44) receiving the broadcast the target device creates and sends an access control list change notification message to all other system devices that should have received the same broadcast if the broadcast is a valid request to update access control list information. The target device waits for responses from the other system devices to validate that the broadcast has been properly sent to a threshold number of other system devices before taking action to operationally change local data in accordance with the broadcast.”

The patent application was filed on May 30, 2014 (14/292,285).

Wireless sending set of encoded data slices
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,798,616) developed by Grube, Gary W., Barrington Hills, IL, and Markison, Timothy W., Mesa, AZ, for a “wireless sending a set of encoded data slices.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method begins by a dispersed storage, (DS) processing module selecting a subset of a set of encoded data slices, wherein the subset of encoded data slices includes less than a decode threshold number of encoded data slices. When a receiving entity is affiliated with a first wireless communication resource, the method continues with the DS processing module outputting the subset of encoded data slices via the first wireless communication resource to the receiving entity, wherein the first wireless communication resource has a first wireless geographic coverage area. When the receiving entity is affiliated with a second wireless communication resource and is located outside of the first wireless geographic coverage area, the method continues with the DS processing module outputting one or more encoded data slices of the set of encoded data slices via the second wireless communication resource to the receiving entity.”

The patent application was filed on October 9, 2012 (13/647,518).

Balancing storage node utilization of dispersed storage network
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,794,337) developed by Peake, Andrew George, Resch, Jason K., and Motwani, Manish, Chicago, IL, for a “balancing storage node utilization of a dispersed storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method begins by a dispersed storage, (DS) processing module determining memory space utilization state of logical storage nodes of a dispersed storage network DSN. When a logical storage node is in an over-utilized memory space utilization state and another logical storage node is in an under-utilized memory space utilization state, the method continues with the DS processing module selecting the other logical storage node to produce a selected logical storage node and reassigning a portion of a DSN address range assigned to the selected logical storage node to a logical storage node that is in an average memory space utilization state to create an address free logical storage node. The method continues with the DS processing module reassigning address blocks assigned to the logical storage node that is in the over-utilized memory space utilization state to the address free logical storage node.”

The patent application was filed on September 17, 2013 (14/028,881).

Distributed storage integrity processing
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,785,503) developed by Dhuse, Greg, Chicago, IL, Baptist, Andrew, Mt. Pleasant, WI, Mark, Zachary J., Resch, Jason K., and Volvovski, Ilya, Chicago, IL, for a “method and apparatus for distributed storage integrity processing.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A distributed storage integrity system in a dispersed storage network includes a scanning agent and a control unit. The scanning agent identifies an encoded data slice that requires rebuilding, wherein the encoded data slice is one of a plurality of encoded data slices generated from a data segment using an error encoding dispersal function. The control unit retrieves at least a number T of encoded data slices needed to reconstruct the data segment based on the error encoding dispersal function. The control unit is operable to reconstruct the data segment from at least the number T of the encoded data slices and generate a rebuilt encoded data slice from the reconstructed data segment. The scanning agent is located in a storage unit and the control unit is located in the storage unit or in a storage integrity processing unit, a dispersed storage processing unit or a dispersed storage managing unit.”

The patent application was filed on July 15, 2014 (14/331,997).

Distributed storage network for storing data object
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,785,351) developed by Resch, Jason K., Leggette, Wesley, Gladwin, S. Christopher, Dhuse, Greg, Chicago, IL, and Baptist, Andrew, Mt. Pleasant, WI, for a “distributed storage network for storing a data object based on storage requirements.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A distributed storage network, (DSN) includes a user device and a plurality of DSN memories, wherein each of the DSN memories includes a plurality of storage units. The user device includes at least one network interface to the plurality of DSN memories and at least one processing module that is operable to determine one of the plurality of DSN memories for storing a data object based on a comparison of one or more storage requirements of the data object and one or more DSN attributes of the plurality of DSN memories.”

The patent application was filed on June 30, 2014 (14/318,790).

Obtaining dispersed storage network system registry information
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,781,208) developed by Leggette, Wesley, and Resch, Jason K., Chicago, IL, for an “obtaining dispersed storage network system registry information.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method begins by a processing module of a dispersed storage network, DSN) obtaining an identifier, (ID) piece of multiple ID pieces regarding a registry fragment of a distributed DSN registry. The method continues with the processing module performing a function on the ID piece to obtain a registry fragment alias, wherein performance of the function on the multiple ID pieces would produce multiple registry fragment aliases. The method continues with the processing module determining DSN addressing information for the registry fragment based on the registry fragment alias, wherein the DSN addressing information is determinable from any one of the multiple registry fragment aliases. The method continues with the processing module receiving a response regarding the registry fragment when a local copy of the registry fragment is not up-to-date.”

The patent application was filed on August 26, 2014 (14/468,731).

Dispersed storage based on estimated life
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,781,207) developed by Shirley, Jr., Thomas Franklin, Wauwatosa, WI, and Gladwin, S. Christopher, Chicago, IL, for a “dispersed storage based on estimated life and methods for use therewith.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A dispersed storage and task, (DST) processing unit receives a data access request. An estimated end of life is determined for a plurality of DST execution units. A subset of the plurality of DST execution units is selected, based on a threshold number associated with the data access request and further based on the estimated end of life for the subset of the plurality of DST execution units. The data access request is executed via the subset of the plurality of DST execution units.”

The patent application was filed on June 26, 2014 (14/315,925).

Writing encoded data slices in dispersed storage network
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,778,987) developed by Shirley, Jr., Thomas Franklin, Wauwatosa, WI, Grube, Gary W., Barrington Hills, IL, Cilfone, Bart, Chicago, IL, Khadiwala, Ravi, Bartlett, IL, Dhuse, Greg, Chicago, IL, Cocagne, Thomas Darrel, Elk Grove Village, IL, Storm, Michael Colin, Vedpathak, Yogesh Ramesh, Leggette, Wesley, Resch, Jason K., Chicago, IL, Baptist, Andrew, Mt. Pleasant, WI, and Volvovski, Ilya, Chicago, IL, for a “writing encoded data slices in a dispersed storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for writing a set of encoded data slices to memory of a dispersed storage network, (DSN) begins by a processing module identifying an encoded data slice of the set of encoded data slices for a redundant write operation to produce an identified encoded data slice. The method continues with the processing module generating a set of first write requests regarding the set of encoded data slices less the identified encoded data slice and generating a set of second write requests regarding the identified encoded data slice. The method continues with the processing module sending the set of first write requests to storage units of the DSN and sending the set of second write requests to a set of storage units of the DSN, where each storage unit of the set of storage units is sent a corresponding one of the set of second write requests.”

The patent application was filed on December 15, 2014 (14/570,366).

Storing data in dispersed storage network
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,774,684) developed by Dhuse, Greg, Chicago, IL, for a “storing data in a dispersed storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method begins by a computing device generating a set of write requests regarding a set of encoded data slices and sending the set of write requests to a set of storage units, where each write request includes an encoded data slice, a corresponding slice name, and a transaction number. The method continues with each of at least some of the storage units generating a write response that includes the transaction number and a list of revision levels corresponding to the slice name. The method continues with the computing device receiving the write responses from the at least some of the storage units, determining a most current revision level based on the lists of revision levels and generating a set of write commit messages, where a write commit message includes the transaction number and a new revision level for the set of encoded data slices.”

The patent application was filed on October 6, 2015 (14/876,154).

Distributed rebuilding of data in dispersed storage network
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,774,680) developed by Vas, Sebastien, Sunnyvale, CA, and Resch, Jason K., Chicago, IL, for a “distributed rebuilding of data in a dispersed storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A technique of rebuilding data slices in a dispersed storage network when detecting a plurality of data slices that require rebuilding. A plurality of rebuilding resources capable for use to rebuild the plurality of data slices are determined and based on an attribute associated with the determination, a rebuilding task is apportioned and the apportioned tasks are assigned to the plurality of rebuilding resources to rebuild the data slices. The apportionment of the tasks permit more than one rebuilding resource and associated distributed storage unit to perform the rebuild of the data slices.”

The patent application was filed on July 31, 2014 (14/447,909).

Storage pools for dispersed storage network
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,774,679) developed by Storm, Michael Colin, Motwani, Manish, and Leggette, Wesley, Chicago, IL, for a “storage pools for a dispersed storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method begins by a dispersed storage, (DS) processing module selecting storage pools within the DSN with available capacity for storing data of a storage group. The method continues by selecting one or more dispersed storage, (DS) units within each of the selected storage pools based on a selection criteria and mapping the one or more DS units to the storage group. The method continues by receiving a write request to store a data object to the storage group and by storing the data object in at least one of the mapped one or more DS units. The method continues with the DS processing module issuing an indication unutilized storage space calculated on a proportionate basis based on storage utilized for the storage group as a percentage of total storage utilized and updating a write proportion value based on received storage utilization responses.”

The patent application was filed on July 11, 2014 (14/328,919).

Adjusting number of dispersed storage units
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,762,395) developed by Kazi, Asimuddin, Naperville, IL, and Resch, Jason K., Chicago, IL, for an “adjusting a number of dispersed storage units.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method begins by a processing module of a dispersed storage network, (DSN) determining that a set of storage units of the DSN will be substantially used for read operations of dispersed storage error encoded data. For the set of storage units, the method continues with the processing module determining an actual level of reliability in retrieving a decode threshold number of encoded data slices per read request of a plurality of read requests. The method continues with the processing module comparing the actual reliability to a desired level of reliability in retrieving the decode threshold number of encoded data slices per read request of the plurality of read requests. When the actual reliability exceeds the desired reliability by a reconfiguration threshold, the method continues with the processing module removing one or more storage units from the set of storage units.”

The patent application was filed on March 3, 2015 (14/636,860).

Storing low retention priority data in dispersed storage network
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,749,414) developed by Resch, Jason K., Chicago, IL, for a “storing low retention priority data in a dispersed storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method begins by a processing module of a dispersed storage network, (DSN) sending a set of low retention priority write requests to storage units of the DSN, where each low retention priority write request includes a low retention priority query. For each storage unit of the storage units that receives a low retention priority write request of the set of low retention priority write requests, the method continues with the processing module determining a low retention priority response regarding availability for storing low retention priority data based on current storage of low priority data objects and available memory for storing the low retention priority data. The method continues with the processing module sending the low retention priority response. When a threshold number of favorable low retention priority responses have been received, the method continues at the processing module facilitating storage of a low retention priority data object.”

The patent application was filed on June 30, 2014 (14/320,518).

Storage of encrypted data in dispersed storage network
IBM, Armonk, NY, with applicant Cleversafe, Inc., Chicago, IL, an IBM Business, has been assigned a patent (9,747,457) developed by Grube, Gary W., Barrington Hills, IL, Markison, Timothy W., Mesa, AZ, Gladwin, S. Christopher, Abhijeet, Kumar, Dhuse, Greg, and Resch, Jason K., Chicago, IL, for a “efficient storage of encrypted data in a dispersed storage network.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for storing a data object includes identifying data segments of the data object. The method continues with generating key indexes for the data segments. For a data segment, the method continues with accessing data segment key information based on a corresponding key index of the plurality of key indexes to determine whether an encryption key has been generated for a similar data segment. When the encryption key has been generated for the similar data segment, the method continues with using the encryption key to encrypt the data segment to produce an encrypted data segment. The method continues with compressing the encrypted data segment to produce a compressed and encrypted data segment. The method continues with storing the compressed and encrypted data segment in a storage unit of a dispersed storage network, (DSN).”

The patent application was filed on May 6, 2015 (14/705,752).