Cloud information services

• US 10,051,073 B1
• Filed: 12/31/2010
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Sudhakar, Muddu, Tryfonas, Christos
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tu
• Application Number:
  US12/982,993
• Time in Patent Office: 2,783 Days
• Field of Search: 709223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/14 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operation G06F11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/30 Monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54

Abstract

A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for processing data. In some embodiments, this includes determining a policy, intercepting communication between a user and a cloud service provider, applying the determined policy to the intercepted communication, storing at least a portion of the intercepted communication in an intermediary. In some embodiments, information stored in the intermediary may be retrieved without the cloud service provider.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an intermediary device that includes a processor that is used by the system in the management of one or more services provided by a cloud service provider to a user, wherein in operation, the processor executes instructions to;

access a document retention policy which specifies storage information for documents meeting one or more criteria, wherein the documents specified in the document retention policy comprise email;

intercept a communication initiated at one of the user and the cloud service provider and directed by the initiating user or cloud service provider to the other of the user and the cloud service provider, wherein the communication is intercepted by the intermediary device as the communication travels between the user and cloud service provider, wherein the intercepted communication is an email;

process the intercepted communication in accordance with the accessed document retention policy, even when the document retention policy is different from a document retention policy of the cloud service provider regarding the intercepted communication;

store a portion of the intercepted communication at the intermediary device so that the stored portion of the intercepted communication can be subsequently retrieved from the intermediary device by the user;

receive a request from the user to retrieve the stored portion of the intercepted communication; and

provide the stored portion of the intercepted communication to the user upon request by the user, wherein the stored portion of the intercepted communication is provided to the user without involvement by the cloud service provider.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein in operation, the processor further executes instructions to intercept a word processing document as the word processing document travels between the user and cloud service provider.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the intercepted communication is initiated by the cloud service provider.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more services provided by the cloud service provider includes any one or more of email services, word processing services, and customer relationship management (CRM) services.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the intermediary is local either to the user or to the cloud service provider.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the system is configured such that communications between the user and the cloud service provider pass through the intermediary.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the intercepted communication is generated in association with the operation of a software as a service (SAAS) application provided by the cloud service provider.

8. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein in operation, the processor further executes instructions to perform one or more of:

redirect the email after receipt from the user or cloud service provider;

copy the email after receipt from the user or cloud service provider;

or

after interception, pass the intercepted email to an intended recipient.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor to process the intercepted communication in accordance with the document retention policy comprises executing the instructions by the processor to do one or more of:

control user access to a portion of the intercepted communication;

or

store multiple versions of the intercepted communication at the intermediary.

10. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor executes instructions to process the intercepted communication in accordance with multiple policies.

11. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprising deleting the stored portion of the intercepted communication when specified by the document retention policy.

12. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein processing the intercepted communication in accordance with the accessed document retention policy comprises retaining the intercepted communication but not passing the intercepted communication on.

13. A non-transitory storage medium having stored therein computer-executable instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, perform management of one or more services provided by a cloud service provider to a user by:

accessing a document retention policy which specifies storage information for documents meeting one or more criteria, wherein the documents specified in the document retention policy comprise email;

intercepting a communication initiated at one of the user and the cloud service provider and directed by the initiating user or cloud service provider to the other of the user and the cloud service provider, wherein the communication is intercepted by the intermediary device as the communication travels between the user and cloud service provider, wherein the intercepted communication is an email;

processing the intercepted communication in accordance with the accessed document retention policy, even when the document retention policy is different from a document retention policy of the cloud service provider regarding the intercepted communication;

storing a portion of the intercepted communication at the intermediary device so that the stored portion of the intercepted communication can be subsequently retrieved from the intermediary device by the user;

receiving a request from the user to retrieve the stored portion of the intercepted communication; and

providing the stored portion of the intercepted communication to the user upon request by the user, wherein the stored portion of the intercepted communication is provided to the user without involvement by the cloud service provider.

14. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein in operation, the one or more processors further execute instructions to intercept a word processing document as the word processing document travels between the user and the cloud service provider.

15. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the intercepted communication is initiated by the cloud service provider.

16. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the one or more services provided by the cloud service provider includes any one or more of email services, word processing services, and customer relationship management (CRM) services.

17. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein processing the intercepted communication in accordance with the document retention policy comprises one or more of:

controlling user access to a portion of the intercepted communication;

or

storing multiple versions of the intercepted communication at the intermediary.

18. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein processing the intercepted communication in accordance with the document retention policy comprises one or more of:

redirecting the email after receipt from the user or cloud service provider;

copying the email after receipt from the user or cloud service provider;

or

after interception, passing the intercepted email to an intended recipient.

19. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the intercepted communication is processed in accordance with multiple policies.

20. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the intercepted communication is generated in association with the operation of a software as a service (SAAS) application provided by the cloud service provider.