EMPLOYING USER-CONTEXT IN CONNECTION WITH BACKUP OR RESTORE OF DATA

• US 20100257143A1
• Filed: 04/02/2009
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sosnosky, Lara M., Murphy, Elissa E., Cheng, Lili, Mehr, John D., Moromisato, George
• Granted Patent: US 8,583,603 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/682
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/219 Managing data history or versioning querying versioned data G06F16/2474; querying temporal data G06F16/2477

Abstract

The claimed subject matter relates to architectures for facilitating network-accessible or local backup or restore features in a manner that leverages event-oriented contextual information associated with one or more users of the data to be backed up or restored. In particular, a first restore-based architecture can interface with an associated second backup-based architecture that hosts or maintains a backup data store in order to retrieve a version of the data file that is desired by a user. Additionally, the first architecture can obtain a log of contextual event descriptions that can be aggregated by the second architecture or obtained independently from, e.g. a social networking service or a calendar application associated with the user. Thus, in addition to displaying time and date information associated with the desired version, the first architecture can provide the user with a social context of event from the social services feeds to aid the user in distinguishing between multiple versions of the data file.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system that employs event-oriented contextual indicia in connection with restoration of data, comprising:

a transaction component that communicates with a backup data store in order to retrieve a desired version of a data file associated with a user, the backup data store facilitates backup of multiple versions of the data file;

a context component that obtains a log of contextual event descriptions; and

an interface component that outputs at least a portion of the log, the portion includes a reference to the desired version of the data file and further includes at least one contextual event description that describes an underlying event that occurred during a period of time substantially contemporaneous with a backup operation performed in connection with the desired version.

2. The system of claim 1, each contextual event description included in the log describes a respective event that relates to a context of the user near to a time when the data file was backed up.

3. The system of claim 1, the at least one contextual event description is obtained from a social networking service feed associated with or subscribed to by the user.

4. The system of claim 1, the at least one contextual event description is obtained from a calendar application associated with or employed by the user.

5. The system of claim 1, the data file resides in a shared folder or directory in which a second user has write privileges.

6. The system of claim 5, the at least one contextual event description is obtained from a social networking service feed subscribed to by the second user or a calendar application employed by the second user.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a search component that filters the log of contextual event descriptions based upon a parameter input to the interface component;

and the interface component outputs a filtered portion of the log.

8. The system of claim 7, the parameter is a user ID or a group ID and the search component includes in the filtered portion only contextual event descriptions related to the user ID or the group ID and contextual event descriptions logged substantially contemporaneously as those related to the user ID or the group ID.

9. The system of claim 7, the parameter is a contextual event source and the search component includes in the filtered portion only contextual event descriptions from that source and contextual event descriptions logged substantially contemporaneously as those from the source.

10. The system of claim 7, the parameter is a keyword and the search component includes in the filtered portion only contextual event descriptions that include the keyword and contextual event descriptions logged substantially contemporaneously as those that include the keyword.

11. The system of claim 1, the transaction component replaces the data file with the desired version of the data file upon selection of the reference by way of the interface component.

12. The system of claim 11, the transaction component facilitates a backup of the data file prior to a restoration of the desired version.

14. The system of claim 1, the events component aggregates contextual event descriptions from multiple social networking service news feeds.

15. The system of claim 1, the events component aggregates contextual event descriptions from one or more scheduling or itinerary applications.

16. The system of claim 1, the log includes a contextual event description that includes a reference to the most recent version.

13. A computer implemented system that employs event-oriented contextual indicia in connection with archival of data, comprising:

a scheduling component that identifies data associated with a user that is designated for backup;

an events component that logs contextual event descriptions associated with the user; and

a backup component archives a most recent version of identified data to a backup data store and further archives a log, or portion thereof, of contextual event descriptions occurring approximately during a same time period as archival of the most recent version.

17. A computer implemented method for employing event-oriented contextual indicia in connection with archival or restoration of data, comprising:

interfacing with a backup data store that archives multiple versions of a data file associated with a user;

receiving a set of contextual event descriptions;

employing an interface presented on a display for outputting at least a subset of the set of contextual event descriptions;

including in the subset a reference link to a desired version of the data file; and

including in the subset one or more contextual event descriptions describing an underlying event that occurred during a temporal range approximately contemporaneous with a backup of the desired version.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising at least one of the following acts:

receiving at least one contextual event description included in the subset from a social networking service feed associated with the user;

receiving at least one contextual event description included in the subset from a calendar, scheduling, or itinerary application associated with the user;

receiving at least one contextual event description included in the subset from a social networking service feed associated with a second user with whom data privileges in connection with the data file are shared;

or

receiving at least one contextual event description included in the subset from a calendar, scheduling, or itinerary application associated with a second user with whom data privileges in connection with the data file are shared.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising at least one of the following acts:

including in the interface a filtering feature that updates a presentation of the subset of contextual event descriptions based upon an input;

updating the presentation of the subset with contextual event descriptions related only to a particular user, a particular group of users, or a particular source when the input is an associated user ID, group ID, or source ID, respectively;

updating the presentation of the subset with contextual event descriptions that include a particular keyword when the input is the keyword;

or

replacing the data file with the desired version of the data file upon selection of the reference link.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising at least one of the following acts:

identifying data associated with the user including the data file that is slated for backup;

aggregating contextual event descriptions from multiple sources for constructing the set of contextual event descriptions, wherein each member of the set includes a description of a respective event associated with a context of the user at about a time in which the data file was backed up;

backing up a most recent version of identified data to the backup data store;

including in the set a reference to the most recent version;

or

archiving the set of contextual event descriptions to the backup data store.