Centralized data transformation

• US 20060053265A1
• Filed: 04/08/2005
• Published: 03/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Original Assignee: Fortinet Inc.
• Inventors: Durham, Roderick Harold
• Granted Patent: US 7,703,137 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/163
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/552 involving long-term monitoring or reporting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/577 Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

A method of facilitating transformation of survey data from being in at least one foreign format used by a survey-tool to being in a desired format may include: receiving instances of foreign data from survey-tools, the foreign data being in foreign format used by the survey-tools, respectively; and appending, to the instances of foreign data, service-keys to identify the service tools which gathered the foreign data, respectively, to produce a data block that includes key-and-foreign-data pairs. Another such method may include: receiving such a data block; culling from the block key-and-foreign-data pairs; and operating upon the pairs to transform respective chunks of foreign data from being in respective foreign formats into being in corresponding desired formats according to corresponding service-keys, respectively.

Claims

1-5. -5. (canceled)

6. A method of facilitating transformation of survey data from being in a foreign format used by a survey-tool to being in a desired format, the method comprising:

receiving a block of survey data, the block including at least a first chunk of foreign data formatted according to an at least first foreign format and at least a first service-key to identify an at least first service tool which gathered the at-least first chunk, respectively;

culling from the block at least a first pair of a service key and a corresponding chunk of foreign data, respectively, the first pair including the first service key and the first chunk of foreign data; and

operating upon the at-least-first pair to transform respective chunks of foreign data from being in respective foreign formats into being in corresponding desired formats according to corresponding service-keys, respectively.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the block of survey data includes

at least a second chunk of foreign data formatted according to at least a second foreign format, respectively, and

at least a second service-key to identify at least a second service tool which gathered the at-least-second chunk, respectively;

the culling from the block culls at least a second key-and-foreign-chunk pair; and

the operating upon the at-least-first pair further operates upon the at-least-second key-and-foreign-chunk pair to transform the at-least-second chunk according to the at-least-second second key, respectively.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the transforming of the foreign data transforms the at-least-one foreign format into the same desired format.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the transforming includes:

identifying at least first and second format-interpretation (FI) services appropriate to the at-least-first-and-second foreign formats based upon the at-least-first-and-second service-keys, respectively;

passing the at-least-first-and-second chunks to the at-least-first-and-second FI-services, respectively; and

receiving at least first and second parcels of data formatted to the desired format from the at-least-first-and-second FI-services, respectively,

the at-least-first-and-second parcels corresponding to the at-least-first-and-second chunks, respectively.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the transforming of the foreign data transforms the at-least-one foreign format to the same desired format.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the transforming includes:

identifying at least a first format-interpretation (FI) service appropriate to the at-least-first foreign format based upon the at-least-first service-key, respectively;

passing the at-least-first chunk to the at-least-first FI-service, respectively; and

receiving at least a first parcel of data formatted to the desired format from the at-least-first FI-service, respectively,

the at-least-first parcel corresponding to the at-least-first chunk, respectively.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the operating upon the at-least-first pair includes:

determining if a service-key corresponds to a known foreign format; and

discarding, if the service-key does not correspond to a known foreign format, the corresponding chunk.

30. A machine configured to implement the method of claim 6.

31. A machine configured to implement the method of claim 7.

32. A machine configured to implement the method of claim 8.

33. A machine configured to implement the method of claim 9.

34. A machine configured to implement the method of claim 10.

35. A machine configured to implement the method of claim 11.

36. A machine configured to implement the method of claim 12.

13-17. -17. (canceled)

18. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions, execution of which by a machine facilitates transformation of survey data from being in at least one foreign format used by a survey-tool to being in a desired format, the machine-readable instructions including:

a first code segment to receive a block of survey data, the block including at least a first chunk of foreign data formatted according to an at least first foreign format and at least a first service-key to identify an at least first service tool which gathered the at-least first chunk, respectively;

a second code segment to cull from the block at least a first pair of a service key and a corresponding chunk of foreign data, respectively, the first pair including the first service key and the first chunk of foreign data; and

a third code segment to operate upon the at-least-first pair to transform respective chunks of foreign data from being in respective foreign formats into being in corresponding desired formats according to corresponding service-keys, respectively.

19. The machine-readable instructions of claim 18, wherein:

the block of survey data includes

at least a second chunk of foreign data formatted according to at least a second foreign format, respectively, and

at least a second service-key to identify at least a second service tool which gathered the at-least-second chunk, respectively;

execution of the second code segment further causes the machine to cull at least a second key-and-foreign-chunk pair; and

execution of the third code segment further causes the machine to operate upon the at-least-second key-and-foreign-chunk pair to transform the at-least-second chunk according to the at-least-second second key, respectively.

20. The machine-readable instructions of claim 19, wherein execution of the third code segment causes the machine to transform the at-least-one foreign format into the same desired format.

21. The machine-readable instructions of claim 19, wherein execution of the third code segment further causes the machine to:

identify at least first and second format-interpretation (FI) services appropriate to the at-least-first-and-second foreign formats based upon the at-least-first-and-second service-keys, respectively;

pass the at-least-first-and-second chunks to the at-least-first-and-second FI-services, respectively; and

receive at least first and second parcels of data formatted to the desired format from the at-least-first-and-second FI-services, respectively,

the at-least-first-and-second parcels corresponding to the at-least-first-and-second chunks, respectively.

22. The machine-readable instructions of claim 18, wherein execution of the third code segment causes the machine to transform the at-least-one foreign format into the same desired format.

23. The machine-readable instructions of claim 18, wherein execution of the third code segment further causes the machine to:

identify at least a first format-interpretation (FI) service appropriate to the at-least-first foreign format based upon the at-least-first service-key, respectively;

pass the at-least-first chunk to the at-least-first FI-service, respectively; and

receive at least a first parcel of data formatted to the desired format from the at-least-first FI-service, respectively,

the at-least-first parcel corresponding to the at-least-first chunk, respectively.

24. The machine-readable instructions of claim 18, wherein execution of the third code segment further causes the machine to:

determine if a service-key corresponds to a known foreign format; and

discard, if the service-key does not correspond to a known foreign format, the corresponding chunk.

25-29. -29. (canceled)

37. (canceled)

38. An apparatus for facilitating transformation of survey data from being in a foreign format used by a survey-tool to being in a desired format, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a block of survey data, the block including at least a first chunk of foreign data formatted according to an at least first foreign format and at least a first service-key to identify an at least first service tool which gathered the at-least first chunk, respectively;

means for culling from the block at least a first pair of a service key and a corresponding chunk of foreign data, respectively, the first pair including the first service key and the first chunk of foreign data; and

means for operating upon the at-least-first pair to transform respective chunks of foreign data from being in respective foreign formats into being in corresponding desired formats according to corresponding service-keys, respectively.