POLICY-BASED COMPUTATION AND STORAGE OF CLOUD-BASED COLLABORATION OBJECTS

• US 20160359684A1
• Filed: 08/18/2016
• Published: 12/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Box Incorporated
• Inventors: Rizqi, Muhammad Ashar, Smith, Benjamin C., Queisser, Jeffrey R., Greenan, Kevin M.
• Granted Patent: US 10,454,778 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data

Abstract

One or more servers are deployed in a cloud-based environment such that the cloud-based servers are configured to interface with one or more object processing target sites. In response to an object processing command, various combinations of feasible activities to perform at feasible target sites (e.g., object processing sites) are considered so as to generate object processing scenarios capable of executing object processing commands while observing constraints that may derive from the nature of, and/or attributes pertaining to the object processing sites. A scenario including a determination of one or more target sites is selected from the considered object processing scenarios. The selected one or more target sites are used to activate the object processing commands (e.g., for computation and/or for storage activities). A target site may be a country or state or other jurisdiction that inures benefits (e.g., tax benefits) and/or limitations (e.g., import/export limitations) pertaining to specific activities.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

configuring a server in a cloud-based environment, wherein the server is configured to interface with one or more content management resource sites that are accessible over a network by the server to provide cloud-based storage services in response to an object processing command;

receiving, by the server, the object processing command comprising at least one object processing activity and at least one object storage activity;

determining, by a first evaluation of one or more first metrics pertaining to one or more object processing sites, one or more feasible object processing sites, the one or more feasible object processing sites capable of executing at least a portion of the object processing activity; and

determining, by a second evaluation of one or more second metrics pertaining to one or more object storage sites, one or more feasible object storage sites, the one or more feasible object storage sites capable of executing at least a portion of the object storage activity,

wherein the first evaluation of at least some of the feasible object processing sites is performed independently from the second evaluation of at least some of the object storage sites.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating one or more object processing scenarios wherein the one or more object processing scenarios comprise at least one object processing site and at least one object storage site.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising selecting at least one selected scenario from the object processing scenarios, the selecting being based at least in part on one or more objectives.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining one or more predicted object processing metrics for at least some of the object processing scenarios.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the predicted object processing metrics pertain to at least one of, a cost, or a latency, or an availability or any combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the objectives correspond to a respective one of the predicted object processing metrics.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising scoring the object processing scenarios, wherein the scoring is based at least in part on at least one of the predicted object processing metrics.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising comparing at least some of the object processing scenarios according to the predicted object processing metrics.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein evaluation of the feasible object processing sites is based at least in part on at least one of, a storage object data type, or a nature of derived data of the storage object.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining one or more feasible object storage sites further comprises determining a data storage site independently from determining a site to store the derivative data of the storage object.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more feasible object processing sites do not violate a respective site-specific security policy.

12. A computer readable medium, embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform a set of acts the acts comprising:

configuring a server in a cloud-based environment, wherein the server is configured to interface with one or more content management resource sites that are accessible over a network by the server to provide cloud-based storage services in response to an object processing command;

receiving, by the server, the object processing command comprising at least one object processing activity and at least one object storage activity;

determining, by a first evaluation of one or more first metrics pertaining to one or more object processing sites, one or more feasible object processing sites, the one or more feasible object processing sites capable of executing at least a portion of the object processing activity; and

determining, by a second evaluation of one or more second metrics pertaining to one or more object storage sites, one or more feasible object storage sites, the one or more feasible object storage sites capable of executing at least a portion of the object storage activity,

wherein the first evaluation of at least some of the feasible object processing sites is performed independently from the second evaluation of at least some of the object storage sites.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of generating one or more object processing scenarios wherein the one or more object processing scenarios comprise at least one object processing site and at least one object storage site.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of selecting at least one selected scenario from the object processing scenarios, the selecting being based at least in part on one or more objectives.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of determining one or more predicted object processing metrics for at least some of the object processing scenarios.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the predicted object processing metrics pertain to at least one of, a cost, or a latency, or an availability or any combination thereof.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the objectives correspond to a respective one of the predicted object processing metrics.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform acts of scoring the object processing scenarios, wherein the scoring is based at least in part on at least one of the predicted object processing metrics.

19. A system comprising:

a storage medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions; and

one or more processors that execute the instructions to cause the one or more processors to perform a set of acts, the acts comprising,

configuring a server in a cloud-based environment, wherein the server is configured to interface with one or more content management resource sites that are accessible over a network by the server to provide cloud-based storage services in response to an object processing command;

receiving, by the server, the object processing command comprising at least one object processing activity and at least one object storage activity;

determining, by a first evaluation of one or more first metrics pertaining to one or more object processing sites, one or more feasible object processing sites, the one or more feasible object processing sites capable of executing at least a portion of the object processing activity; and

determining, by a second evaluation of one or more second metrics pertaining to one or more object storage sites, one or more feasible object storage sites, the one or more feasible object storage sites capable of executing at least a portion of the object storage activity,

wherein the first evaluation of at least some of the feasible object processing sites is performed independently from the second evaluation of at least some of the object storage sites.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising generating one or more object processing scenarios wherein the one or more object processing scenarios comprise at least one object processing site and at least one object storage site.