SCALABLE APPLICATION-AS-A-SERVICE ENVIRONMENT AND SYSTEMS AND METHODS USEFUL IN CONJUNCTION THEREWITH

• US 20180054444A9
• Filed: 05/23/2016
• Published: 02/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cameyo Inc.
• Original Assignee: Eyal Dotan
• Inventors: DOTAN, Eyal
• Granted Patent: US 10,382,446 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0838 using one-time-passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1004 Server selection for load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• 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 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A computerized method of managing a computer remote session operation, comprising providing a server for hosting application execution; configuring a number of predefined user accounts with low security permissions on said server, where said user accounts are not tied to any specific real user; Whenever a remote user requests to start a remote session, finding an available user account not currently in use on said computer, allocating it for the remote session and marking it as unavailable for subsequent session requests; Generating a one-time password for said user account; Communicating the assigned user account identifier and temporary password to client component on the user'"'"'s side, either directly or through an intermediate broker, causing the client component to connect to the server using said user account identifier and temporary password; and, upon termination of the remote session, deleting the assigned user account'"'"'s data and marking it as available again.

Claims

1. A computerized method of managing a computer program'"'"'s operations, comprising:

defining an arbitrary directory path on the local computer;

causing file enumeration operation requests sent from the controlled program to the computer'"'"'s operating system to be intercepted; and

whenever a file enumeration operation request is intercepted, checking whether the enumeration is targeted at said arbitrary directory path or a subdirectory thereof;

if it is, then;

initiating a file enumeration request on a remote storage; and

returning to the calling program the result of the remote enumeration operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein whenever a file enumeration operation request is targeted at the direct parent of said arbitrary directory path, then forwarding the request to the operating system and modifying the returned data so as to add the name of the arbitrary directory to the list.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein file information is cached, and wherein subsequent enumeration requests on the same path are retrieved from the cache without initiating another remote access request.

4. The method of claim 1, further causing file open operation requests sent from the controlled program to the computer'"'"'s operating system to be intercepted, and

whenever a file open operation request is intercepted, checking whether the opening is targeted at said arbitrary directory path or a subdirectory thereof;

if it is, then;

initiating a file download request from a remote storage; and

returning to the calling program the contents the locally-downloaded file.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the remote file is downloaded to a local directory and the file open operation request is modified to point to the local copy of the file, and then forwarded to the operating system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the local copy of the downloaded file is monitored for changes, and wherein whenever a change is detected, duplicating that change back on the remote storage.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the downloaded file is saved in encrypted form.

8. The method of claim 7, further causing file read operation requests sent from the controlled program to the computer'"'"'s operating system to be intercepted, and

whenever a file read operation request is intercepted, checking whether the operation is targeted at the downloaded file;

if it is, then;

forwarding the request to the operating system; and

decrypting the returned data and returning it to the calling program.

9. The method of claim 8, further causing file write operation requests sent from the controlled program to the computer'"'"'s operating system to be intercepted, and

whenever a file write operation request is intercepted, checking whether the operation is targeted at the downloaded file;

if it is, then;

encrypting the calling program'"'"'s write data; and

forwarding the request to the operating system.

10. A computerized method of managing a computer program'"'"'s operations, comprising:

causing file open and file save operation requests sent from the controlled program to the computer'"'"'s operating system to be intercepted; and

whenever a file open or file save class instantiation is intercepted, then;

substituting the file open or file save class with a private, own-made dialog;

pointing said dialog to display files from the user'"'"'s cloud storage provider, using a cloud storage access token previously obtained through user'"'"'s consent; and

returning to the calling program the result of the remote enumeration operation.

11. The method of claim 10, where the file open and save operations are substituted by:

intercepting controlled application'"'"'s calls to the operating system'"'"'s CoCreateInstance API, replacing it with a substitution function;

when said substitution function is called, determining whether the requested class instantiation is either the FileOpen or FileSave dialog, and if it is, then replacing the returned class object with a substitute dialog class object; and

said substitute file save or open class object'"'"'s Show method is implemented to display remote cloud storage files by calling storage provider'"'"'s enumeration functions, using the user'"'"'s storage access tokens.

12. The method of claim 11, where said substitute file save or open class object'"'"'s GetResult method is implemented so as to cause the remote file to be copied locally, and returns the user'"'"'s selected file in a locally-accessible path.

13. A computerized method of managing a computer remote session operation, comprising:

providing a server for hosting application execution;

configuring a number of predefined user accounts with low security permissions on said server, where said user accounts are not tied to any specific real user;

whenever a remote user requests to start a remote session, finding an available user account not currently in use on said computer, allocating it for the remote session and marking it as unavailable for subsequent session requests;

generating a one-time password for said user account;

communicating the assigned user account identifier and temporary password to client component on the user'"'"'s side, either directly or through an intermediate broker,

causing the client component to connect to the server using said user account identifier and temporary password; and

upon termination of the remote session, deleting the assigned user account'"'"'s data and marking it as available again.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the session'"'"'s programs are provided with virtualized storage method comprising:

defining an arbitrary directory path on the local computer,

causing file enumeration operation requests sent from the controlled program to the computer'"'"'s operating system to be intercepted; and

whenever a file enumeration operation request is intercepted, checking whether the enumeration is targeted at said arbitrary directory path or a subdirectory thereof;

if it is, then;

initiating a file enumeration request on a remote storage; and

returning to the calling program the result of the remote enumeration operation.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the user requests a specific virtual application to be used as part of his remote session, further comprising, before letting the user'"'"'s session start:

provisioning the requested virtual application to the remote server, and

upon start of the remote session, launching the virtual application and causing it to be rendered to the remote user.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein sessions are started with a user-specified file to open as a parameter, and where:

upon session start, the server component downloads said file from the user'"'"'s remote storage, using previously-acquired user storage access tokens; and

the server-side component launches an application capable of handling the user'"'"'s selected file according to the file'"'"'s type.

17. A computerized method for remotely creating virtual application packages, comprising:

taking a first initial snapshot of a computer server'"'"'s files;

waiting for software installation package to be sent by a remote user,

upon reception of an installation package, executing that installation program;

upon completion of the installation, taking a second snapshot of the computer server'"'"'s files and comparing the second snapshot with the initial snapshot'"'"'s files; and

generating a virtual application package from the difference between the second snapshot and the first one.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

defining a list of known installation builders, each with their known predefined command-line arguments for unattended installation mode;

upon reception of the installation package and before executing it, checking the installation package to determine if it was built with a known installation builder;

if it was, then executing it in unattended mode, using said predefined command-line arguments.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

if the installation package was not built with a known installation builder, then executing it and generating a temporary password for remote connection into the computer, and

causing the remote user to connect into the computer and conduct the installation to its completion.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

upon reception of the installation package, executing it and generating a temporary password for remote connection into the computer, and

causing the remote user to connect into the computer and conduct the installation to its completion.