ANALYZING CLIENT DATA STORES

• US 20130097221A1
• Filed: 10/14/2011
• Published: 04/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mimecast Services Limited (Mimecast Limited)
• Original Assignee: Mimecast North America, Inc. (Mimecast Limited)
• Inventors: Borenstein, Nathaniel S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,009,220 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Among other things, a method includes a data storage system associated with a provider entity and storing data on behalf of a client entity, the data being accessible from the data storage system by the client entity, a data interface enabling access by the provider entity to the data of the data storage system, and an analysis engine maintained by the provider entity to, at times determined by the analysis engine, access the data using the data interface, analyze the data, and generate results of the analysis for use by the client entity

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a data storage system associated with a provider entity and storing data on behalf of a client entity, the data being accessible from the data storage system by the client entity;

a data interface enabling access by the provider entity to the data of the data storage system; and

an analysis engine maintained by the provider entity to, at times determined by the analysis engine;

access the data using the data interface,

analyze the data, and

generate results of the analysis for use by the client entity.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising a client interface to enable the access to the data of the data storage system by the client entity.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising a client interface to receive updates of the data from the client entity.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the analysis is performed based on preferences of the client entity.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the analysis is performed on a subset of the data that is associated with a specified period of time.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the analysis comprises an identification of patterns in the data.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the data received from the client entity comprises electronic messages.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the results are provided to the client entity in electronic messages.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the results are provided to the client entity at times based on characteristics of the results.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 in which the characteristics of the results comprise an event identified by the analysis engine as a priority event.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the data storage system stores data received from a second client entity.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 in which the data received from the client entity is not accessible to the second client entity.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 in which the analysis engine generates the results partially based on an analysis of the data received from the second client entity.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the provider entity is independent of the client entity.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the client entity comprises a commercial enterprise.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the results are generated based on two instances of data analysis each performed at two different times.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the data is accessible from the data storage system by the client entity on a network shared with entities other than the client entity and the provider entity.

18. A method comprising:

at a provider entity;

storing data on a data storage system on behalf of a client entity, the data being accessible from the data storage system by the client entity; and

performing an ongoing analysis of the data and generating results of the analysis for use by the client entity, the data being accessed at times determined by the provider entity.

19. The method of claim 18 in which the analysis is performed based on preferences of the client entity.

20. The method of claim 18 in which the analysis comprises an identification of patterns in the data.

21. The method of claim 18 in which the results are provided to the client entity at times based on characteristics of the results.

22. The method of claim 18 in which the results generated based on two instances of data analysis each performed at two different times.

23. The method of claim 18 in which the data is accessible from the data storage system by the client entity on a network shared with entities other than the client entity and the provider entity.

24. A method comprising:

receiving, from a client entity, data of distinct data systems associated with the client entity;

processing the data from the distinct data systems for storage on a single data storage system; and

enabling access by the client entity to the processed data and by an analysis engine associated with the data storage system.

25. The method of claim 24 in which the data of at least one of the distinct data systems is formatted in a data format proprietary to the respective distinct data system.

26. The method of claim 24 in which the data of one of the data systems is formatted in a first data format and the data of another of the data systems is formatted in a second data format.

27. The method of claim 24 in which the access by the client entity to the processed data is enabled by a single interface to the data.

28. The method of claim 24 in which the single data storage system comprises a plurality of coordinated physical computer systems.

29. A method comprising:

receiving, from a client entity, data of a plurality of data systems;

processing the data for use by applications executing on a single data storage system and for analysis by an analysis mechanism associated with the data storage system; and

enabling access by the client entity to the applications.

30. The method of claim 29 in which at least one of the applications stores data in a first data format and data of at least one of the data systems is formatted in a second data format.

31. The method of claim 29 in which the single data storage system comprises a plurality of coordinated physical computer systems.

32. A method comprising:

receiving, from a client entity, data of distinct data systems associated with the client entity;

processing the data from the distinct data systems for storage on a single data storage system and for use by applications executing on the data storage system; and

enabling access by the client entity to the processed data and the applications, and enabling access by an analysis engine associated with the data storage system to the processed data.

33. The method of claim 32 in which the access to at least some of the processed data is provided using at least one of the applications.

34. The method of claim 32 in which the single data storage system comprises a plurality of coordinated physical computer systems.

35. An apparatus comprising:

a data storage system associated with a provider entity and storing data on behalf of a client entity, the data being accessible from the data storage system by the client entity;

a data interface enabling access by the provider entity to the data of the data storage system; and

means for the provider entity to, on behalf of the client entity, analyze portions of the data received at times determined by the provider entity.

36. The apparatus of claim 35 in which the portions of the data are analyzed based on preferences of the client entity.

37. The apparatus of claim 35 in which at least some of the portions of the data are associated with a specified period of time at which the data was stored on the data storage system.

38. An apparatus comprising:

a data storage system associated with a provider entity and storing data on behalf of a client entity;

a client interface enabling access to the data of the data storage system by the client entity; and

an analysis engine maintained by the provider entity to, at times determined by the analysis engine;

access the data using the client interface,

analyze the data, and

generate results of the analysis for use by the client entity,

the results of the analysis being determined based on preferences of the client entity and provided to the client entity at times determined by the analysis engine based on characteristics of the analysis.

39. A method comprising:

at a provider entity;

storing data on a data storage system on behalf of a client entity, the data being accessible from the data storage system by the client entity;

performing an analysis of the data based on preferences of the client entity and generating results of the analysis for use by the client entity, the data being accessed at a plurality of times determined by the provider entity; and

delivering the results to the client entity at times based on characteristics of the results.

40. A method comprising:

at a client entity;

transmitting data from data systems of the client entity to a data system of a provider entity;

accessing the data at the data system of the provider entity; and

receiving results of analyses of the data at the data system of the provider entity, the results received at times determined by the provider entity based on preferences of the client entity.

41. An apparatus comprising:

a data storage system associated with a provider entity and storing data on behalf of a client entity, the data being accessible from the data storage system by the client entity, and being accessible from the data storage system by the provider entity at times determined by the provider entity for the provider entity to perform continuous analysis of the data with permission of the client entity.

42. An apparatus comprising:

a software interface maintained by a provider entity and providing access to the a provider entity to data stored by a data storage system on behalf of a client entity,

wherein the extent of the access is tailored to applications that access and analyze the data at times determined by the provider entity.