Information classification

• US 8,135,685 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2006
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Nair, Manoj, Vukelja, Iva Blazina, Rankov, Alex, Wah, Mark Weng Soon, Perrin, Stephen R
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoffler, Raheem
• Application Number:
  US11/528,772
• Publication Number:
  US 20080071813A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,994 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/694
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/16 File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

Providing information classification in a computer system for use in an information management system. Information management provides services such as data protection, backup, retention, compliance, etc., by classifying the objects and/or environment of an entity according to its value to the entity. Initially a series of rules are identified relating to information management services. Using these rules, information is classified into categories by using a series of plugins that relate to specific characteristics of information within data. Often, classification includes the collection and/or generation of metadata. After the data is classified, service level objectives can be identified and mapped to service levels. After service levels are selected, the corresponding actions can be orchestrated such that the objects of the entity received the selected services in the service level.

Claims

1. In a computer system that stores data objects, wherein the data objects receive services orchestrated by an information management system, a method for providing information classification of data objects to provide information management to the data objects, the method comprising:

at a processor of a computer system,

identifying rules relating to information management service levels in the computer system;

automatically collecting information describing each data object in the computer system;

applying the rules to the data objects, wherein the rules are driven at least by the collected information, wherein applying the rules generates metadata relating to at least a lifecycle of the data objects;

assigning one or more categories of information management to each data object, wherein the metadata relating to the lifecycle of the data objects are considered in assigning a particular category to one or more of the data objects;

identifying one or more service level objectives for each data object based on the assigned one or more categories of each data object, wherein each of the one or more service level objectives corresponds to a service to be provided to each data object, wherein the services provided to each data object are customized for each data object according to the service level objectives identified for each data object, wherein the rules, assigned categories and identified service level of each data object determine a value of each data object to an entity;

proceeding with at least some of the one or more service level objectives when a determination is made that the value of each of the data objects associated with each of the one or more service level objectives is greater than a cost of the services associated with the one or more service level objectives; and

mapping the at least some of the one or more service level objectives to service levels available in the computer system, wherein each service level includes a bundle of services that are provided to the data objects.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically collecting information comprises using a plurality of adapters to collect the information including metadata regarding each object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the rules use metadata associated with each data object describing the capabilities, features, hash, and/or content of each data object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the objects include at least one of directories, volumes, files, folders, user data, system data, applications, services, operating systems, instructions, and computer settings.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each object'"'"'s collected information includes content of the object as well as a hash function of the object.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically collecting information further comprises generating metadata for each object, the newly generated metadata being used to assign the object to one or more categories.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the newly generated metadata is used during classification of each object and at least a portion of the newly generated metadata is generated automatically from the object itself.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the newly generated metadata is used in connection with information relating to each object'"'"'s content and infrastructure in classifying each object.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more service level objectives include at least one of backup, retention, tiered storage, encryption, access control, or disaster recover.

9. In a computer system that stores data objects, wherein the data objects receive services orchestrated by an information management system, a method for providing information management to the data objects, the method comprising:

at a processor of a computer system,

identifying rules relating to user-defined categories, the rules pertaining to the metadata, content, or environment of data objects;

applying the rules to classify the data objects and generate further metadata;

assigning categories of information management for each data object based on the rules and the generated metadata;

identifying one or more service level objectives for each data object, wherein each of the service level objectives reflects a value of the associated data objects to an entity, wherein each service level objective corresponds to a service to be provided to each of the data objects by a provider, wherein the services provided to each data object are customized according to the service level objectives identified for each data object;

mapping each of the one or more service level objectives to service levels available in the computer system when, for each service level objective, a value of the data objects associated with each service level objective is worth a cost of performing the service associated with each service level objective, wherein each service level includes a bundle of services available from the provider; and

providing the services to the data objects.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the rules include one or more of hash rules, content rules, and classifier rules.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the generated metadata is used by the series of rules to assign the categories and wherein data objects can belong to more than one category of information management.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein each data object'"'"'s hash function is used to classify that particular data object.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein applying the rules further comprises ignoring some of the rules based on a particular data object.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein generating metadata comprises one or more of:

identifying an author of a particular data object;

identifying a key word in the particular data object;

identifying a pattern in the particular data object;

identifying information in the particular data object associated with regulatory compliance;

identifying information in the particular data object associated with corporate compliance;

or

identifying a lifecycle of the particular data object.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising valuing the data objects based on the assigned categories of the data objects.

19. The method according to claim 9, wherein the one or more service level objectives include at least one of backup, retention, tiered storage, encryption, access control, or disaster recover.

16. In a computer system that stores data objects, wherein an information management system orchestrates services for the data objects, a method for providing information management to the data objects, the method comprising:

at a processor of a computer system,

discovering objects in a computer system environment to collect information including metadata about the objects;

generating additional metadata for at least some of the objects;

classifying the objects by applying rules specified by an entity to each object, wherein the rules use the collected information and the additional metadata, wherein applying the rules generates metadata relating to business lines of the objects; and

assigning one or more categories to each object during classification of the objects based on an outcome of the rules, wherein the metadata relating to the business lines of the objects are considered in assigning one or more categories to a particular object;

identifying one or more service level objectives for each object based on the assigned one or more categories of each object, wherein each of the one or more service level objectives corresponds to a service to be provided to each object and wherein the services provided to each object are customized according the one or more service level objectives identified for each data object, wherein a cost of the services provided to the data objects provides a standard for determining a value of each of the data objects, wherein the rules, assigned categories and identified service level of each data object determine the value of each data object to an entity;

mapping the one or more service level objectives to service levels available in the computer system, wherein each service level includes a bundle of services; and

providing the services in the bundle of services to the objects according to the mapping, wherein services whose cost is greater than the value of the data objects receiving those services are not provided.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein generating additional metadata further comprises performing one or more of:

applying a hash to each object;

performing content analysis;

requesting external analysis of each object;

indexing each object;

searching for keywords in each object; and

searching for patterns in each object.

20. The method according to claim 16, wherein the one or more service level objectives include at least one of backup, retention, tiered storage, encryption, access control, or disaster recovery.