Amazon Assigned Nineteen Patents on Storage

Data storage optimization for non-volatile memory
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,552,312) developed by Allen, Nicholas Alexander, Seattle, WA, for a “data storage optimization for non-volatile memory.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Non-volatile devices may be configured such that a clear operation on a single bit clears an entire block of bits. The representation of particular data structures may be optimized to reduce the number of clear operations required to store the representation in non-volatile memory. A data schema may indicate that a data structure of an application may be optimized for storage in non-volatile memory. A translation layer may convert an application level representation of a data value associated with the data structure to an optimized storage representation of the data value before storing the optimized storage representation of the data value in non-volatile memory.”

The patent application was filed on August 29, 2017 (15/689,282).

Capturing snapshots of storage volumes
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,552,083) developed by Elisha, Simon Jeremy, Melbourne, Australia, for “capturing snapshots of storage volumes.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method and apparatus for capturing a snapshot of storage volumes of a data capture group are disclosed. In the method and apparatus, a request to create a data capture group may be received and processed. The data capture group may have one or more storage volumes. Upon defining the data capture group, a snapshot of the storage volumes of the data capture group may be taken.”

The patent application was filed on December 20, 2018 (16/227,712).

File system mode switching in distributed storage service
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,545,927) developed by Strauss, Jacob A., Boston, MA, Luszcz, Jocob David, Somerville, MA, Jones, Peter, Lexington, MA, Frasca, Michael Robert, Cambridge, MA, and Charbonneau, Neal John, Medford, MA, for a “file system mode switching in a distributed storage service.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A distributed file storage services, (DFSS) that provides low latency, (LL) and high throughput, (HT) modes for file systems. A HT metadata subsystem, (HTMS) may use a distributed transaction system for data and metadata reads and writes for file systems in HT mode. A LL metadata subsystem, (LLMS) may process metadata requests for file systems in LL mode. For metadata read requests, the LLMS may locally cache at least some of the file system metadata. For metadata write requests, the LLMS may write entries to a journal and notify the access node after the entries are committed to the journal. Data reads and writes for file systems in LL mode may be handled similarly to data reads and writes for file systems in HT mode. A file system may be converted from LL to HT mode, or from HT to LL mode.”

The patent application was filed on March 25, 2016 (15/081,651).

Secure storage and searching of information maintained on search systems
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,541,983) developed by Khashei Varnamkhasti, Afshin, West Vancouver, Canada, and Pistol, Bogdan Ciprian, Burnaby, Canada, for “secure storage and searching of information maintained on search systems.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and techniques are disclosed for secure storage and searching of information on insecure search systems. One of the methods is implemented by a system of one or more computers being in communication with clients and search engines. A request associated with storage of client information in a search engine is obtained. First cryptographic information is generated based on a portion of the client information, such that the first cryptographic is to be utilized for indexing by the search engine. Second cryptographic information is generated based on performing an order-preserving encryption process on portion of the client information, such that the second cryptographic information is to be utilized to recover order associated with information included in the portion. The first cryptographic information and the second cryptographic information are provided for storage in the search system.”

The patent application was filed on July 19, 2017 (15/654,468).

Physical media aware spacially coupled journaling and replay
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,540,102) developed by Peterson, Phillip, Seattle, WA, Baryudin, Leonid, Sladic, Daniel, San Jose, CA, and Biswas, Sujan, Seattle, WA, for “physical media aware spacially coupled journaling and replay.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An indirection mapping data structure can maintain a mapping between logical block addresses used by a host computer and physical data storage locations on a solid state drive. Changes to the indirection mapping data structure can be stored in journals. When a journal is full, the journal can be stored to a predetermined location on the cluster block determined based on the number of entries stored by the journal, leading to a number of journals scattered throughout the cluster block at predetermined locations. Each physical chunk of media, whether written with data or marked as defective is journaled. Such a journaling scheme, where the journal locations are predetermined and each physical chunk of media is journaled is referred to as physical media-aware spatially coupled journaling. During replay the spatially coupled journals can be retrieved from the predefined locations within cluster blocks and used to rebuild the indirection mapping data structure.”

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2016 (15/282,295).

Optimized log storage for asynchronous log updates
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Reno, NV, has been assigned a patent (10,534,768) developed by Madhavarapu, Pradeep Jnana, Mountain View, CA, Mittal, Raman, Tobler, Benjamin, Seattle, WA, Corey, James McClellan, Bothell, WA, Leshinsky, Yan Valerie, Kirkland, WA, McKelvie, Samuel James, Seattle, WA, and Gupta, Anurag Windlass, Atherton, CA, for an “optimized log storage for asynchronous log updates.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A log-structured data store may implement optimized log storage for asynchronous log updates. In some embodiments, log records may be received indicating updates to data stored for a storage client and indicating positions in a log record sequence. The log records themselves may not be guaranteed to be received according to the log record sequence. Received log records may be stored in a hot log portion of a block-based storage device according to an order in which they are received. Log records in the hot log portion may then be identified to be moved to a cold log portion of the block-based storage device in order to complete a next portion of the log record sequence. Log records may be modified, such as compressed, or coalesced, before being stored together in a data block of the cold log portion according to the log record sequence.”

The patent application was filed on December 28, 2015 (14/981,540).

Block device emulation for data snapshots
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,534,749) developed by Miah, Mahmood, Eddey, Matthew James, Seattle, WA, and Yuhan, John Sandeep, Lynnwood, WA, for a “block device emulation for data snapshots.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A snapshot analysis system analyzes a plurality of data snapshots taken in connection with data stored on a block device allocated by a data storage system. The snapshot analysis system may include an ingestor capable of initially detecting new snapshots and adding a root node for the snapshots. The system may include a block device analyzer that analyzes each snapshot to determine its contents, the relationship within data structures extant within the snapshot, and the snapshot’s relationship to other snapshots and/or that of other block devices. The system may also include a clustering analyzer capable of determining whether snapshots are associated with multipart block devices, such as LVM or MD-RAID devices. The system may further include a block device emulator that exposes data associated with a given snapshot as an addressable block device without necessitating retrieval or exposure of the full block device to which the snapshot is associated.”

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2016 (15/087,335).

Logical deletion of stored data objects
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,534,726) developed by McHugh, Jason G., Seattle, WA, Gattu, Praveen Kumar, Redmond, WA, Ten-Pow, Michael A., and Denny-Brown, II, Derek Ernest, Seattle, WA, for “system and method for logical deletion of stored data objects.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and methods for providing object versioning in a storage system may support the logical deletion of stored objects. In response to a delete operation specifying both a user key and a version identifier, the storage system may permanently delete the specified version of an object having the specified key. In response to a delete operation specifying a user key, but not a version identifier, the storage system may create a delete marker object that does not contain object data, and may generate a new version identifier for the delete marker. The delete marker may be stored as the latest object version of the user key, and may be addressable in the storage system using a composite key comprising the user key and the new version identifier. Subsequent attempts to retrieve the user key without specifying a version identifier may return an error, although the object was not actually deleted.”

The patent application was filed on May 14, 2018 (15/979,327).

Fetching latest versions of stored data objects
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,528,537) developed by McHugh, Jason G., Seattle, WA, Gattu, Praveen Kumar, Redmond, WA, Ten-Pow, Michael A., and Denny-Brown, II, Derek Ernest, Seattle, WA, for “system and method for fetching the latest versions of stored data objects.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A distributed storage system may store data object instances in persistent storage and may cache keymap information for those data object instances. The system may cache a latest symbolic key entry for some user keys of the data object instances. When a request is made for the latest version of stored data object instances having a specified user key, the latest version may be determined dependent on whether a latest symbolic key entry exists for the specified user key, and keymap information for the latest version may be returned. When storing keymap information, a flag may be set to indicate that a corresponding latest symbolic key entry should be updated. The system may delete a latest symbolic key entry for a particular user key from the cache in response to determining that no other requests involving the keymap information for data object instances having the particular user key are pending.”

The patent application was filed on January 22, 2018 (15/877,126).

Network service for identifying infrequently accessed data in data stream
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,523,756) developed by Chakraborty, Anand, Redmond, WA, and Wenneman, Michael Christopher, Seattle, WA, for a “network service for identifying infrequently accessed data in a data stream.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A stream of storage requests can be received for data objects stored by a storage service. A streaming algorithm can be utilized to identify the most frequently accessed objects stored by the storage service. A statistical distribution of the most frequently accessed objects can then be generated and utilized to estimate the number of infrequently accessed objects. Machine learning can also be utilized to identify correlations between attributes of objects stored by the storage service and their associated access rates. For instance, machine learning can be utilized to determine that objects stored in a certain location or having other characteristics typically have low access rates. Information regarding the number of infrequently accessed objects and their learned attributes can be utilized to take action with regard to the infrequently accessed objects, such as moving the infrequently accessed objects to long-term storage.”

The patent application was filed on March 1, 2017 (15/446,774).

Peer-based cloud storage for media broadcasts
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,523,755) developed by Quach, Anderson Kaailodge, Seattle, WA, Chaboud, Matthew Liang, San Francisco, CA, Jamal, Shah Pavel, Seattle, WA, Darling, Jr., Donald John, Sunnyvale, CA, and Halbach, Kyke Daniel, Seattle, WA, for a “peer-based cloud storage for media broadcasts.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The recording of broadcast media can be performed by a network storage service even where a client is unable to provide a full copy of the media file. For example, a client might want to record a television broadcast by transmitting the content to a remote storage service. For a high definition format, however, the upload limitations of the data connection may prevent the full content from being uploaded from that client. Accordingly, clients recording the same content and using the same service can upload respective segments of the content, with each segment being provided by at least one of the clients and available for subsequent download. At least some of those clients can also store some of the segments such that those clients can act as peer sources for obtaining those segments.”

The patent application was filed on February 17, 2016 (15/046,342).

Data storage key rotation
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,523,434) developed by Sharifi Mehr, Nima, Vancouver, Canada, for a “data storage key rotation.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The present document describes a data storage system that includes a sandboxed execution environment. The execution environment is made available to clients of the data storage system. Clients are able to upload executable instructions to the execution environment, which can be used to manipulate data stored on the data storage system. In various examples, clients use the execution environment to perform key rotation operations on encrypted data stored on the data storage system. Clients transfer executable instructions and cryptographic keys to the execution environment, where the encrypted data stored on the data storage system can be read into the execution environment, decrypted with an old key, re-encrypted with a new key, and returned to the data storage system.”

The patent application was filed on March 4, 2016 (15/061,937).

Intelligent storage devices with cryptographic functionality
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,521,595) developed by Roth, Gregory Branchek, Seattle, WA, and Brandwine, Eric Jason, Haymarket, VA, for “intelligent storage devices with cryptographic functionality.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage device can include processing and cryptographic capability enabling the device to function as a hardware security module, (HSM). This includes the ability to encrypt and decrypt data using a cryptographic key, as well as to perform processing using such a key, independent of whether that processing involves data stored on the device. An internal key can be provided to the drive, whether provided before customer software access or received wrapped in another key, etc. That key enables the device to perform secure processing on behalf of a user or entity, where that key is not exposed to other components in the network or environment. A key may have specified tasks that can be performed using that key, and can be discarded after use. In some embodiments, firmware is provided that can cause a storage device to function as an HSM and/or processing device with cryptographic capability.”

The patent application was filed on May 25, 2018 (15/989,493).

Data storage with multiple durability levels
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,514,847) developed by Kusters, Norbert P., Redmond, WA, Arumugam, Nachiappan, Watson, Christopher Nathan, Brooker, Marc John, Richardson, David R., Wei, Danny, and Guthrie, II, John Luther, Seattle, WA, for a “data storage system with multiple durability levels.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data storage system includes multiple head nodes and multiple data storage sleds mounted in a rack. For a particular volume or volume partition one of the head nodes is designated as a primary head node for the volume or volume partition. The primary head node is configured to store data for the volume in a data storage of the primary head node and cause the data to be replicated to a secondary head node. The primary head node is also configured to cause the data for the volume to be stored in a plurality of respective mass storage devices each in different ones of the plurality of data storage sleds of the data storage system.”

The patent application was filed on December 28, 2016 (15/392,857).

Data storage with multi-tier control plane
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,509,601) developed by Kusters, Norbert P., Redmond, WA, Arumugam, Nachiappan, Watson, Christopher Nathan, Brooker, Marc John, Richardson, David R., Wei, Danny, and Guthrie, II, John Luther, Seattle, WA, for a “data storage system with multi-tier control plane.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data storage system includes multiple data storage units and a zonal control plane. The zonal control plane assigns volumes to respective ones of the data storage units. The data storage units include multiple head nodes and data storage sleds. At least one of the head nodes implements a local control plane for the data storage unit. Also, the head nodes of each data storage unit are configured to service read and write requests directed to one or more volumes serviced by the data storage unit independent of the zonal control plane.”

The patent application was filed on December 28, 2016 (15/392,878).

Page cache write logging at block-based storage
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,503,650) developed by Wei, Danny, Guthrie, II, John Luther, Thompson, James Michael, Hawks, Benjamin Arthur, Seattle, WA, and Kusters, Norbert P., Redmond, WA, for a “page cache write logging at block-based storage.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A block-based storage system may implement page cache write logging. Write requests for a data volume maintained at a storage node may be received at a storage node. A page cache for may be updated in accordance with the request. A log record describing the page cache update may be stored in a page cache write log maintained in a persistent storage device. Once the write request is performed in the page cache and recorded in a log record in the page cache write log, the write request may be acknowledged. Upon recovery from a system failure where data in the page cache is lost, log records in the page cache write log may be replayed to restore to the page cache a state of the page cache prior to the system failure.”

The patent application was filed on August 20, 2018 (16/105,481).

Cached volumes at storage gateways
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (10,503,639) developed by Salyers, David Carl, Seattle, WA, Vincent, Pradeep, Kenmore, WA, Khetrapal, Ankur, Seattle, WA, and Patiejunas, Kestutis, Sammamish, WA, for “cached volumes at storage gateways.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Methods and apparatus for supporting cached volumes at storage gateways are disclosed. A storage gateway appliance is configured to cache at least a portion of a storage object of a remote storage service at local storage devices. In response to a client’s write request, directed to at least a portion of a data chunk of the storage object, the appliance stores a data modification indicated in the write request at a storage device, and asynchronously uploads the modification to the storage service. In response to a client’s read request, directed to a different portion of the data chunk, the appliance downloads the requested data from the storage service to the storage device, and provides the requested data to the client.”

The patent application was filed on June 8, 2018 (16/003,956).

Maintaining master replica for reads and writes in data store
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Reno, NV, has been assigned a patent (10,496,667) developed by Rath, Timothy Andrew, Seattle, WA, and Lutz, David Alan, Renton, WA, for “system and method for maintaining a master replica for reads and writes in a data store.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system that implements a data storage service may store data on behalf of clients in multiple replicas on respective computing nodes. The system may employ an external service to select a master replica for a replica group. The master replica may service consistent read operations and/or write operations that are directed to the replica group, (or to a data partition stored by the replica group). The master replica may employ a quorum based mechanism for performing replicated write operations, and a local lease mechanism for determining the replica authorized to perform consistent reads, even when the external service is unavailable. The master replica may propagate local leases to replica group members as replicated writes. If another replica assumes mastership for the replica group, it may not begin servicing consistent read operations that are directed to the replica group until the lease period for a current local lease expires.”

The patent application was filed on September 19, 2014 (14/491,789).

Command parallelization for data storage
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Reno, NV, has been assigned a patent (10,496,327) developed by Paterra, Frank Charles, Kirkland, WA, Neilsen, Eric, Lynnwood, WA, Portnoy, Andrew, Bellevue, WA, and Basarir, Firat, Seattle, WA, for a “command parallelization for data storage systems.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data storage system implements aggregation, bifurcation, and/or reduction techniques to improve the efficiency of processing data storage requests. Data storage requests and/or their associated payloads may be aggregated based on one or more parameters. Data to be the stored and the associated commands may be separated so as to optimize a system’s throughput and latency for each. Furthermore, extraneous commands and requests may be reduced or eliminated based on heuristics associated with the requests and the data.”

The patent application was filed on September 28, 2016 (15/279,348).