SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MANAGING DATA PROTECTION RESOURCES

• US 20080282321A1
• Filed: 05/22/2008
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continuity Software Ltd. (Continuity Software, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Continuity Software Ltd. (Continuity Software, Inc.)
• Inventors: HECHT, Gil, GORDON, Doron, PINHAS, Doron
• Granted Patent: US 8,863,224 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect

Abstract

Herewith disclosed a method and system for computerized managing a plurality of data protection (DP) resources. The computerized management comprises obtaining data related to at least part of the DP resources among said plurality of DP resources, wherein at least part of data is obtained by automated collecting; accommodating the obtained data in a data repository thus giving rise to accommodated data; processing the accommodated data, said processing resulting in at least one of the following: a) identifying one or more data protection (DP) schemes characterizing DP resources and/or relationship thereof; and b) identifying one or more data protection (DP) gaps.

Claims

1. A method of computerized managing a plurality of data protection (DP) resources, the method comprising:

a) obtaining data related to at least part of the DP resources among said plurality of DP resources, wherein at least part of data is obtained by automated collecting and/or automated processing of the collected data;

b) accommodating the obtained data in a data repository thus giving rise to accommodated data;

c) processing the accommodated data, said processing resulting in at least one outcome selected from a group comprising;

i) identifying one or more data protection (DP) schemes characterizing DP resources and/or relationship thereof; and

ii) identifying one or more data protection (DP) gaps.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the processing further comprises running at least one rule for identifying one or more DP gaps, said rule being characterized by a scope of the rule, an identification condition and an action to be drawn from the rule when the condition is satisfied.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the scope of the rule is characterized by a certain DP scheme.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one DP gap is characterized by a gap profile and is identified by matching said gap profile to a respective DP scheme.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the gap profile is specified as a combination of the DP scheme and a condition characterizing one or more predefined DP violations.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the processing further comprises running at least one rule for identifying at least one dependency between at least two DP resources among the plurality of DP resources.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising automated generation of a topology map presenting a layout of at least part of the DP resources.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising generation of one or more reports related to identified one or more DP schemes and/or one or more DP gaps.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the data protection gap characterizes at least one of the problems selected from the group comprising:

a) data inconsistency between source DP resource and respective target DP resource;

b) incomplete data between DP resource and respective target DP resource;

c) inappropriate hardware configuration between DP resource and respective target DP resource;

d) inappropriate software configuration between DP resource and respective target DP resource;

e) a problem of data accessibility and/or data path;

f) data tampering;

g) general violation of best practice;

h) wasting of DP resources;

i) extended recovery time;

j) SLA breaches;

k) wrong sequence of maintenance activities;

l) inappropriate configuration of virtual host environment;

m) inappropriate configuration of cluster environment; and

n) missing or incorrectly configured dependency between active DP resources and target DP resources.

6. (canceled)

7. (canceled)

9. (canceled)

13. (canceled)

14. A method of processing data related to DP resources, said processing comprising:

a) running at least one rule so as to identify one or more data protection (DP) schemes characterizing DP resources and/or relationship thereof; and

b) running at least one rule so as to identify one or more DP gaps, wherein at least one DP gap is characterized by a gap profile and is identified by matching said gap profile to at least one identified DP scheme.

15. A system for computerized managing a plurality of data protection (DP) resources, the system comprising:

a) means for obtaining data related to at least part of the DP resources among said plurality of DP resources, wherein at least part of data is obtained by automated collecting and/or automated processing of the collected data;

b) a data repository accommodating the obtained data thus giving rise to accommodated data;

c) a processor adapted to process the accommodated data, said processing resulting in at least one outcome selected from a group comprising;

i) identifying one or more data protection (DP schemes characterizing DP resources and/or relationship thereof; and

ii) identifying one or more data protection (DP) gaps.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the processor is further adapted to run at least one rule to be run for identifying one or more DP gaps, said rule being characterized by a scope of the rule, an identification condition and an action and/or conclusion to be drawn from the rule when the condition is satisfied.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the scope of the rule is characterized by a certain DP scheme.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein at least one DP gap is characterized by a gap profile and is identified by matching said gap profile to respective DP scheme.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the processor is further adapted to group at least part of DP resources and relationship thereof characterized by the DP scheme in one or more groups in accordance with certain rules, wherein conditions specified in the gap profile are to be applied to said groups and/or combination thereof.

21. The system of claim 31 wherein at least one group among said groups is selected from the following set:

a group of one or more parent resource, data accommodating resources associated with certain parent resource, and a layout path.

22. The system of claim 15 wherein the processor is further adapted to process the accommodated data for identifying at least one dependency between at least two DP resources among the plurality of DP resources.

24. The system of claim 15 wherein the processor is further adapted to generate a topology map presenting a layout of at least part of the DP resources.

25. The system of claim 15 further comprising a report generator configured for generating one or more reports related to identified DP scheme and/or DP gap.

26. The system of claim 15 wherein the data protection gap characterizes at least one of the problems selected from the group comprising:

a) data inconsistency between source DP resource and respective target DP resource;

b) incomplete data between DP resource and respective target DP resource;

c) inappropriate hardware configuration between DP resource and respective target DP resource;

d) inappropriate software configuration between DP resource and respective target DP resource;

e) a problem of data accessibility and/or data path

f) data tampering;

g) general violation of best practice;

h) wasting of DP resources;

i) extended recovery time;

j) SLA breaches;

k) wrong sequence of maintenance activities;

l) inappropriate configuration of virtual host environment;

m) inappropriate configuration of cluster environment; and

n) missing or incorrectly configured dependency between active DP resources and target DP resources.

31. The system of claim 18 further comprising a data repository configured to accommodate gap profiles.

19. (canceled)

23. (canceled)

27. A processor adapted for processing data related to DP resources, said processing comprising:

a) running at least one rule so as to identify one or more data protection (DP) schemes characterizing DP resources and/or relationship thereof; and

b) running at least one rule so as to identify one or more DP gaps, wherein at least one DP gap is characterized by a gap profile and is identified by matching said gap profile to at least one identified scheme.

28. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps of computerized managing a plurality of data protection (DP) resources, the method comprising:

a) obtaining data related to at least part of the DP resources among said plurality of DP resources, wherein at least part of data is obtained by automated;

collecting and/or automated processing of the collected data;

b) accommodating the obtained data in a data repository thus giving rise to accommodated data;

c) processing the accommodated data, said processing resulting in at least one finding selected from a group comprising;

i) identifying one or more data protection (DP) schemes characterizing DP resources and/or relationship thereof; and

ii) identifying one or more data protection (DP) gaps.

29. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein of computerized managing a plurality of data protection (DP) resources, the computer program product comprising:

computer readable program code for causing the computer to process the data related to DP resources, said processing resulting in at least one finding selected from a group comprising;

i) computer readable program code for causing the computer to identify one or more data protection (DP) schemes characterizing DP resources and/or relationships thereof; and

ii) computer readable program code for causing the computer to identify one or more data protection (DP) gaps.

30. A computerized service related to identifying one or more data protection (DP) gaps among a plurality of data protection (DP) resources, the service comprising:

a) running at least one rule so as to identify one or more data protection (DP) schemes characterizing DP resources and/or relationship thereof; and

b) running at least one rule so as to identify one or more DP gaps, wherein at least one DP gap is characterized by a gap profile and is identified by matching said gap profile to at least one identified DP scheme.