Policy-based computation and storage of cloud-based collaboration objects

• US 10,454,778 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2016
• Issued: 10/22/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Inventors: Rizqi, Muhammad Ashar, Queisser, Jeffrey R., Smith, Benjamin C., Greenan, Kevin M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Keehn, Richard G
• Application Number:
  US15/240,875
• Publication Number:
  US 20160359684A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,160 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data

Abstract

One or more servers are deployed in a cloud-based environment such that the cloud-based servers are configured to interface with one or more object processing target sites. In response to an object processing command, various combinations of feasible activities to perform at feasible target sites (e.g., object processing sites) are considered so as to generate object processing scenarios capable of executing object processing commands while observing constraints that may derive from the nature of, and/or attributes pertaining to the object processing sites. A scenario including a determination of one or more target sites is selected from the considered object processing scenarios. The selected one or more target sites are used to activate the object processing commands (e.g., for computation and/or for storage activities). A target site may be a country or state or other jurisdiction that inures benefits (e.g., tax benefits) and/or limitations (e.g., import/export limitations) pertaining to specific activities.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

configuring a server in a cloud-based environment, wherein the server is configured to interface with one or more content management resource sites that are accessible over a network by the server to provide cloud-based storage services in response to an object processing command;

receiving, by the server, the object processing command comprising at least one object processing activity and at least one object storage activity;

identifying a policy that pertains to selection of both an object processing site and an object storage site; and

processing the object processing command based at least in part on the policy to produce an object processing sequence, wherein a first operation of the object processing sequence is performed at the object processing site and a second operation of the object processing sequence is performed at the object storage site, the object processing site and the object storage site being different sites, the selection of both the object processing site and the object storage site is performed by;

determining, based at least in part on the first operation of the object processing sequence and the policy, by a first evaluation of one or more first metrics pertaining to one or more object processing sites, one or more feasible object processing sites capable of executing at least a portion of the object processing activity, and

determining, based at least in part on the second operation of the object processing sequence and the policy, by a second evaluation of one or more second metrics pertaining to one or more object storage sites, one or more feasible object storage sites capable of executing at least a portion of the object storage activity, wherein the determining of the one or more feasible object processing sites is performed independently from the determining of the one or more feasible object storage sites.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating one or more object processing scenarios wherein the one or more object processing scenarios comprise at least one object processing site and at least one object storage site.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising selecting at least one selected scenario from the object processing scenarios, the selecting being based at least in part on one or more objectives.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining one or more predicted object processing metrics for at least some of the object processing scenarios.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the predicted object processing metrics pertain to at least one of, a cost, or a latency, or an availability or any combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the objectives correspond to a respective one of the predicted object processing metrics.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising scoring the object processing scenarios, wherein the scoring is based at least in part on at least one of the predicted object processing metrics.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising comparing at least some of the object processing scenarios according to the predicted object processing metrics.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein evaluation of the feasible object processing sites is based at least in part on at least one of, a storage object data type, or a nature of derived data of the storage object.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining one or more feasible object storage sites further comprises determining a data storage site independently from determining a site to store the derivative data of the storage object.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a first processing site of the one or more object processing sites at a first geographical location executes a first processing activity and a second processing site of the one or more object processing sites at a second geographical location is restricted from executing the first processing activity, the second processing site being restricted from executing the first processing activity based at least in part on one or more policies pertaining to the second geographical location, the second geographical location being different than the first geographical location.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the cloud-based environment comprises a plurality of regions, the plurality of regions comprising:

a first region having a first set of compute sites and storage sites, and

a second region having a second set of compute sites and storage sites, wherein the policy restricts the object processing activity and the object storage activity to the first region.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein an engine is configured to:

receive the object processing command,

receive source attributes corresponding to an object of the object processing command,

identify the policy to apply from one or more policies based at least in part on the object processing command and the source attributes, and

generate both storage commands for the object storage site and feasible object processing sites for selecting the object processing site, based at least in part on the policy identified.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the policy is associated with a metadata, the metadata comprising a data structure that references both a storage location and a processing location.

15. A computer readable medium, embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform a set of acts the acts comprising:

configuring a server in a cloud-based environment, wherein the server is configured to interface with one or more content management resource sites that are accessible over a network by the server to provide cloud-based storage services in response to an object processing command;

receiving, by the server, the object processing command comprising at least one object processing activity and at least one object storage activity;

identifying a policy that pertains to selection of both an object processing site and an object storage site; and

processing the object processing command based at least in part on the policy to produce an object processing sequence, wherein a first operation of the object processing sequence is performed at the object processing site and a second operation of the object processing sequence is performed at the object storage site, the object processing site and the object storage site being different sites, the selection of both the object processing site and the object storage site is performed by;

determining, based at least in part on the policy, by a first evaluation of one or more first metrics pertaining to one or more object processing sites, one or more feasible object processing sites, the one or more feasible object processing sites capable of executing at least a portion of the object processing activity, and

determining, based at least in part on the policy, by a second evaluation of one or more second metrics pertaining to one or more object storage sites, one or more feasible object storage sites, the one or more feasible object storage sites capable of executing at least a portion of the object storage activity, wherein the determining of the one or more feasible object processing sites is performed independently from the determining the one or more feasible object storage sites.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of generating one or more object processing scenarios wherein the one or more object processing scenarios comprise at least one object processing site and at least one object storage site.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of selecting at least one selected scenario from the object processing scenarios, the selecting being based at least in part on one or more objectives.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of determining one or more predicted object processing metrics for at least some of the object processing scenarios.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the predicted object processing metrics pertain to at least one of, a cost, or a latency, or an availability or any combination thereof.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the objectives correspond to a respective one of the predicted object processing metrics.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 20, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of scoring the object processing scenarios, wherein the scoring is based at least in part on at least one of the predicted object processing metrics.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the cloud-based environment comprises a plurality of regions, the plurality of regions comprising:

a first region having a first set of compute sites and storage sites, and

a second region having a second set of compute sites and storage sites, wherein the policy restricts the object processing activity and the object storage activity to the first region.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein an engine is configured to:

receive the object processing command,

receive source attributes corresponding to an object of the object processing command,

identify the policy to apply from one or more policies based at least in part on the object processing command and the source attributes, and

generate both storage commands for the object storage site and feasible object processing sites for selecting the object processing site, based at least in part on the policy identified.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the policy is associated with a metadata, the metadata comprising a data structure that references both a storage location and a processing location.

25. A system comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions; and

one or more processors that execute the instructions to cause the one or more processors to perform a set of acts, the acts comprising,

configuring a server in a cloud-based environment, wherein the server is configured to interface with one or more content management resource sites that are accessible over a network by the server to provide cloud-based storage services in response to an object processing command;

receiving, by the server, the object processing command comprising at least one object processing activity and at least one object storage activity;

identifying a policy that pertains to selection of both an object processing site and an object storage site; and

processing the object processing command based at least in part on the policy to produce an object processing sequence, wherein a first operation of the object processing sequence is performed at the object processing site and a second operation of the object processing sequence is performed at the object storage site, the object processing site and the object storage site being different sites, the selection of both the object processing site and the object storage site is performed by;

determining, based at least in part on the policy, by a first evaluation of one or more first metrics pertaining to one or more object processing sites, one or more feasible object processing sites, the one or more feasible object processing sites capable of executing at least a portion of the object processing activity, wherein a first processing site of the one or more object processing sites at a first geographical location executes a first processing activity and a second processing site of the one or more object processing sites at a second geographical location is restricted from executing the first processing activity, the second processing site being restricted from executing the first processing activity based at least in part on one or more policies pertaining to the second geographical location, the second geographical location being different than the first geographical location; and

determining, based at least in part on the policy, by a second evaluation of one or more second metrics pertaining to one or more object storage sites, one or more feasible object storage sites, the one or more feasible object storage sites capable of executing at least a portion of the object storage activity, wherein the determining of the one or more feasible object processing sites is performed independently from the determining of the one or more feasible object storage sites.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising generating one or more object processing scenarios wherein the one or more object processing scenarios comprise at least one object processing site and at least one object storage site.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the cloud-based environment comprises a plurality of regions, the plurality of regions comprising:

a first region having a first set of object processing sites and object storage sites, and

a second region having a second set of object processing sites and object storage sites, wherein the policy restricts the object processing activity and the object storage activity to the first region.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein an engine is configured to:

receive the object processing command,

receive source attributes corresponding to an object of the object processing command,

identify the policy to apply from one or more policies based at least in part on the object processing command and the source attributes, and

generate both storage commands for the object storage site and feasible object processing sites for selecting the object processing site, based at least in part on the policy identified.

29. The system of claim 25, wherein the policy is associated with a metadata, the metadata comprising a data structure that references both a storage location and a processing location.