Employing user-context in connection with backup or restore of data

• US 8,818,957 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2013
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sosnosky, Lara M., Cheng, Lili, Mehr, John D., Moromisato, George, Murphy, Elissa E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shmatov, Alexey
• Assistant Examiner(s): PARK, GRACE A
• Application Number:
  US14/050,342
• Publication Number:
  US 20140143209A1
• Time in Patent Office: 320 Days
• Field of Search: 707/654
• US Class Current: 707/654
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/219 Managing data history or versioning querying versioned data G06F16/2474; querying temporal data G06F16/2477

Abstract

The claimed subject matter relates to architectures for facilitating network-accessible or local backup or restore features in a manner that leverages event-oriented contextual information associated with one or more users of the data to be backed up or restored. In particular, a first restore-based architecture can interface with an associated second backup-based architecture that hosts or maintains a backup data store in order to retrieve a version of the data file that is desired by a user. Additionally, the first architecture can obtain a log of contextual event descriptions that can be aggregated by the second architecture or obtained independently from, e.g., a social networking service or a calendar application associated with the user. Thus, in addition to displaying time and date information associated with the desired version, the first architecture can provide the user with a social context of event from the social services feeds to aid the user in distinguishing between multiple versions of the data file.

Claims

1. A memory having computer-executable instructions stored therein, wherein in response to execution the computer-executable instructions enable performance of operations that restore data to a computing system, the operations comprising:

receiving, from a data store, information regarding multiple backed-up versions of a data file;

presenting, on a display device, a plurality of contextual event descriptions, wherein each contextual event description of the plurality includes information regarding an event from a user'"'"'s calendar and information that correlates the event to a corresponding version of the data file from the multiple backed-up versions of the data file, and wherein the corresponding version of the data file was backed up in temporal proximity to the event;

receiving an indication that represents selection of a particular version of the data file corresponding to a particular contextual event description of the plurality of contextual event descriptions; and

restoring the particular version of the data file to a computing system.

2. The memory of claim 1, wherein each contextual event description of the plurality also includes information regarding a context of the user near to a time the corresponding version of the data file was backed up.

3. The memory of claim 1, wherein:

the user'"'"'s calendar includes information from a social networking service feed associated with the user; and

at least one other contextual event description of the plurality is displayed based on information obtained from the social networking service feed associated with the user.

4. The memory of claim 1, wherein restoring the particular version of the data file includes:

restoring the particular version of the data file to a shared folder or directory to which a second user has write privileges.

5. The memory of claim 1, wherein presenting the plurality of contextual event descriptions includes:

filtering contextual event descriptions based upon a parameter; and

presenting a subset of the filtered contextual event descriptions as the plurality of contextual event descriptions.

6. The memory of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

facilitating a backup of another version the data file prior to restoring the particular version of the data file.

7. The memory of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

inferring states of the computing system, an environment, or the user based on a set of observations as captured via events or event data; and

constructing new events based on inferences by the inferring.

8. A computing device for restoring backed up data, the computing device comprising:

at least one memory and at least one processor that respectively store and execute instructions to;

receive, from a data store, information regarding multiple backed-up versions of a data file;

present a plurality of contextual event descriptions, wherein each contextual event description of the plurality includes information regarding an event from a user'"'"'s calendar and information that correlates the event to a corresponding version of the data file from the multiple backed-up versions of the data file, and wherein the corresponding version of the data file was backed up in temporal proximity to the event;

receive an indication of a selection of a particular version of the data file corresponding to a particular contextual event description of the plurality of contextual event descriptions or of the particular contextual event description; and

restore the particular version of the data file.

9. The computing device of claim 8, wherein each contextual event description of the plurality also includes information regarding a context of the user near to a time the corresponding version of the data file was backed up.

10. The computing device of claim 8, wherein:

the user'"'"'s calendar includes information from a social networking service feed associated with the user; and

at least one other contextual event description of the plurality is displayed based on information obtained from the social networking service feed associated with the user.

11. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the restoration of the particular version of the data file includes:

restoring the particular version of the data file to a shared folder or directory to which a second user has write privileges.

12. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the presentation of the plurality of contextual event descriptions includes:

filtration of contextual event descriptions based upon a parameter; and

presentation of a subset of the filtered contextual event descriptions as the plurality of contextual event descriptions.

13. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor also respectively store and execute instructions to:

facilitate a backup of another version the data file prior to the restoration of the particular version of the data file.

14. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor also respectively store and execute instructions to:

infer states of a computing system, an environment, or the user based on a set of observations as captured via events or event data; and

construct new events based on inferences by the inferring.

15. A memory having instructions stored therein for archiving data, the instructions, in response to execution, enabling operations that comprise:

identifying data designated for backup;

logging at least one contextual event description as being associated with the data designated for backup, wherein each of the at least one contextual event descriptions includes information regarding an event from a user'"'"'s calendar that is substantially contemporaneous to the logging of the at least one contextual event description;

archiving a current version of the identified data designated for backup to a backup data store; and

archiving a log of at least a portion of the logged at least one contextual event description in association with the current version of the identified data designated for backup.

16. The memory of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

aggregating additional contextual event descriptions from multiple social networking service feeds.

17. The memory of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

aggregating additional contextual event descriptions from one or more scheduling or itinerary applications.

18. The memory of claim 15, wherein the log includes a contextual event description having a reference to the current version of the identified data designated for backup.

19. The memory of claim 15, wherein one or more of the at least one contextual event descriptions also includes information regarding a context of the user at a time substantially contemporaneous to the archiving of the current version of the identified file.

20. The memory of claim 15, wherein:

one or more of the contextual event descriptions includes information from a social networking service feed associated with the user.