Data storage management driven by business objectives

• US 7,672,854 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2004
• Issued: 03/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: DataFrameworks, Inc. (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Sherman, Douglas E., Honrud, Paul, Kirkland, Kyle G.
• Primary Examiner(s): OUELLETTE, JONATHAN P
• Application Number:
  US10/934,240
• Publication Number:
  US 20050060178A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,007 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1
• US Class Current: 705/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

Storage organization of data according to business objectives is provided to manage data storage consumption among data storage consumers. Data is not managed at the file level, but organized, coordinated and enforced at a global level based on business logic. The business objectives typically include customer information, priority information, marketing information, manufacturing information, recorded contract and documentary information or information regarding the revenue generation or potential of data. The logical representation enforces data storage consumers to work according to the definitions in the logical representation. The data storage consumers will have the opportunity to define storage parameters for each of the data defined in the logical representation. The placement and determination of where the data should be stored is accomplished according to these defined storage parameters. Data organization based on business logic provides a higher degree of intelligence to the organization of data storage compared to prior art solutions.

Claims

1. A method for organizing folders on and reserving digital data storage space from a distributed network of data storage resources for digital data storage consumers, comprising:

(a) defining a multi-tiered tree-like framework of a logical hierarchical representation of descriptive nodes defined as work types having nested therewith sub-work types, said logical hierarchical representation is defined to reflect a company'"'"'s desired folder hierarchy structure based on one or more business objectives parsed from a database of company records and defined as business products and/or business developments and integrated into said logical hierarchical representation, and said logical hierarchical representation is an enforced template for a folder hierarchy structure for reserving said data storage space and for organizing said digital data according to said one or more business objectives defining said logical hierarchical representation, wherein each of said work types (i) provides a hierarchical point from which said nested sub-work types are related and where said digital data is organized, wherein said sub-work types relation and organization is in accordance with said logical hierarchical representation defined by said one or more business objectives for the combination of said work types and its respective nested sub-work types (ii) provides attributes to define which level of said folder hierarchy structure relates to said reservation of said digital data storage, (iii) provides default data size values for said digital data storage space, (iv) pre-defines folder names for said folders related to said work types, and (v) automates definition of said folder hierarchy structure;

(b) defining for each of said work types a plurality of work units acting as an abstracted reference to one or more of said physical folders on said distributed data storage resources, wherein each of said work units is constrained by said defined logical hierarchical representation of said plurality of work types and the respective constraints for each of said work types in terms of said pre-defined names, and said data size values, wherein the naming of said folder names to said work types, said work units or said digital data is unrestricted, restricted, determined from a list or semi-restricted;

(c) determining the location and physical structure of said folders for said reserved storage space on said distributed network of data storage resources based on availability and load optimization, and wherein said physical folders are created based on said steps (i), (ii) and (iii); and

(d) constraining said data storage consumers to stay within the defined boundaries of said physical folder structure governed by said folder hierarchy structure of said work units and said data size values, and taking action when said boundaries are breached.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1, further comprising enforcing said naming.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1, further comprising enforcing said naming through a save interface or save as interface.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1, further comprising enforcing the type of said digital data.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1, further comprising having timing, routing, scheduling or workflow attributes for said work units.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1, further comprising having business specific calculators to determine said data size values for said storage space.

7. A program storage device accessible by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by said computer to perform method steps for organizing folders on and reserving data storage space from a distributed network of data storage resources for data storage consumers, comprising the method steps of:

(a) defining a multi-tiered tree-like framework of a logical hierarchical representation of descriptive nodes defined as work types having nested therewith sub-work types, said logical hierarchical representation is defined to reflect a company'"'"'s desired folder hierarchy structure based one or more business objectives parsed from a database of company records and defined as business products and/or business developments and integrated into said logical hierarchical representation, and said logical hierarchical representation is an enforced template for a folder hierarchy structure for reserving said data storage space and for organizing said digital data according to said one or more business objectives defining said logical hierarchical representation, wherein each of said work types (i) provides a hierarchical point from which said nested sub-work types are related and where said digital data is organized, wherein said sub-work types relation and organization is in accordance with said logical hierarchical representation defined by said one or more business objectives for the combination of said work types and its respective nested sub-work types (ii) provides attributes to define which level of said folder hierarchy structure relates to said reservation of said digital data storage, (iii) provides default data size values for said digital data storage space, (iv) pre-defines folder names for said folders related to said work types, and (v) automates definition of said folder hierarchy structure;

(b) defining for each of said work types a plurality of work units acting as an abstracted reference to one or more of said physical folders on said distributed data storage resources, wherein each of said work units is constrained by said defined logical hierarchical representation of said plurality of work types and the respective constraints for each of said work types in terms of said pre-defined names, and said data size values, wherein the naming of said folder names to said work types, said work units or said digital data is unrestricted, restricted, determined from a list or semi-restricted;

(c) determining the location and physical structure of said folders for said reserved storage space on said distributed network of data storage resources based on availability and load optimization, and wherein said physical folders are created based on said steps (i), (ii) and (iii); and

(d) constraining said data storage consumers to stay within the defined boundaries of said physical folder structure governed by said folder hierarchy structure of said work units and said data size values, and taking action when said boundaries are breached.

8. The program storage as set forth in claim 7, further comprising enforcing said naming.

9. The program storage as set forth in claim 7, further comprising enforcing said naming through a save interface or save as interface.

10. The program storage as set forth in claim 7, further comprising enforcing the type of said digital data.

11. The program storage as set forth in claim 7, further comprising having timing, routing, scheduling or workflow attributes for said work units.

12. The program storage as set forth in claim 7, further comprising having business specific calculators to determine said data size values for said storage space.