SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CLASSIFYING AND TRANSFERRING INFORMATION IN A STORAGE NETWORK

• US 20070185926A1
• Filed: 11/28/2006
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Brockway, Brian, Ngo, David, Prahlad, Anand, Muller, Marcus, Schwartz, Jeremy
• Application Number:
  US11/564,220
• Publication Number:
  US 20070185926A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1734 Details of monitoring file system events, e.g. by the use of hooks, filter drivers, logs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Systems and methods for data classification to facilitate and improve data management within an enterprise are described. The disclosed systems and methods evaluate and define data management operations based on data characteristics rather than data location, among other things. Also provided are methods for generating a data structure of metadata that describes system data and storage operations. This data structure may be consulted to determine changes in system data rather than scanning the data files themselves.

Claims

1. A method of classifying application-specific data, wherein at least some of the application-specific data is external to a computing system employing the method, the method comprising:

receiving data from an application, wherein the data is specific to the application, and wherein at least some of the application-specific data is external to the computing system employing the method;

classifying the application-specific data to create metadata containing one of multiple defined classifications of the application-specific data, wherein the classifications describe characteristics of the application-specific data that facilitate the performance of storage operations on the application-specific data, and wherein the classifications include interactions associated with the received data; and

,

storing the created metadata in a metabase, wherein the metabase stores metadata created by multiple different applications, wherein at least some of the metadata is specific to one of the multiple different applications.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving comprises monitoring network traffic on a given network interface associated with the computing system employing the method.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving comprises receiving electronic gaming data generated by an electronic gaming application, and wherein the storing includes storing gaming sequences for later transmitting to a third party computer or for replaying.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving comprises receiving multiple web pages, wherein the storing includes storing at least a portion of the web pages, and wherein the interactions include search queries, search results, associated search content, web addresses, or HTML content interacted with.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving comprises receiving electronic communication data, wherein the storing includes storing the electronic communication data, and wherein the method further comprises not storing a portion of the electronic communication data by not classifying the portion of the electronic communication data.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving comprises receiving multiple web pages, wherein the storing includes storing at least a portion of the web pages, and wherein the interactions include user interactions with at least some of the web pages.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving comprises receiving multimedia data, and wherein the interactions include songs accessed, movies accessed, songs stored, or movies stored.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving comprises receiving multiple web pages, and wherein the storing includes storing screen shots associated with at least some of the web pages, or storing summaries of information exchanges associated with at least some of the web pages.

9. A computer-readable media encoded with instructions for controlling a computing system to identify documents complying with a request for documents, by a method comprising:

receiving a request for documents, wherein the request relates to satisfying a compliance criteria;

based on the received request, searching a metabase to locate metadata describing documents satisfying the compliance criteria, wherein the metadata contains data classifications that describe characteristics of the documents that are not stored with the documents; and

,

providing responding data, wherein the responding data relates to documents satisfying the compliance criteria based on the located metadata, and wherein the responding data identifies both primary and secondary storage location associated with at least some of the documents.

10. The computer-readable media of claim 9 wherein the compliance criteria is a legal discovery request, and wherein the responding data includes a report.

11. The computer-readable media of claim 9 wherein the metadata identifies an availability associated with the documents stored at each of multiple data storage locations.

12. The computer-readable media of claim 9 wherein the metadata identifies a retention policy associated with the documents.

13. The computer-readable media of claim 9 wherein the metadata identifies one or more keywords associated with the documents.

14. The computer-readable media of claim 9 wherein the metadata identifies one or more users with associated with to the documents, and wherein the method comprises retrieving at least some of the documents satisfying the compliance criteria based on the located metadata, wherein the retrieving is associated with the secondary storage location.

15. A system for recovering data in an enterprise, comprising:

a data object identification component for receiving criteria identifying one or more data objects to recover;

a metabase component containing classifications associated with data objects, wherein the classifications include information associated with searching for the data objects;

a search component for identifying metadata within the metabase that satisfies the received criteria; and

,

a data recovery component for recovering data described by the metadata identified by the search component.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the data object identification component comprises an application selection component that receives an application selection from the user that identifies a type of data the user wants to recover.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the data object identification component receives a selection from the user of a time range of the data objects that the criteria identifies.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the data recovery component recovers email deleted by the user based on the received criteria.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the metabase component comprises metadata describing objects that have been archived.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein the received criteria contains user-defined data classifications.