On-demand mailbox synchronization and migration system

• US 8,938,510 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2010
• Issued: 01/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BitTitan Incorporated (Idera, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bittan Incorporated
• Inventors: Pouzin, Dominic Justin, Yip, Geeman
• Primary Examiner(s): Hussain, Tauqir
• Application Number:
  US12/961,268
• Publication Number:
  US 20110264748A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,506 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/214 Database migration support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

A system for managing physical and logical resources to provide on-demand synchronization or migration of mailboxes and their corresponding content. Physical resources are managed by automatically assigning mailbox processing tasks to either reserved computing resources, or computing resources dynamically obtained from cloud computing services. Authentication resources are managed by automatically requesting credentials from users, accepting submitted credentials, and initiating mailbox processing tasks.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining credentials for accessing a plurality of mailbox accounts on a source messaging system, wherein the credentials include administrative credentials, automatically requested user credentials, or a combination thereof;

dynamically associating computing resources including on-demand instances obtained from one or more cloud service providers for processing copying of information associated with the plurality of mailbox accounts; and

employing the obtained credentials and the associated computing resources to copy at least some mailbox content associated with each mailbox account from the source messaging system to the destination messaging system, wherein the computing resources are dynamically associated to tasks employed in the copying,

wherein associating computing resources further comprises prioritizing the computing resources to process the copying of the plurality of identified mailbox accounts based on at least one of cost, geographic location, bandwidth, availability, security, type, or speed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring the source messaging system and the destination messaging system for the copying, wherein configuring further comprises determining at least one of a location, messaging system type, and number of mailbox accounts for copying.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising dynamically obtaining the computing resources including enabling bidding by a third party to dynamically provide computing resources for processing the copying of the plurality of identified mailbox accounts, wherein the bidding is based on at least one of cost, geographic location, bandwidth, availability, security, type, and speed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining credentials further comprises requesting a credential for accessing the mailbox account from each user of each mailbox account.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining credentials further comprises receiving a request for copying from each user of each mailbox account, wherein the request includes at least a credential.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a status of computing resources employed to process the migration from the source messaging system to the destination messaging system.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising synchronizing content for the plurality of mailbox accounts that having information copied from the source messaging system to the destination messaging system, wherein the synchronization is based on at least one of a period of time or au event.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the copying of information comprises migrating each of the plurality of mailbox accounts from the source messaging system to the destination messaging system.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically associating computing resources including on-demand instances obtained from one or more cloud service providers for processing copying of in formation associated with the plurality of mailbox accounts comprises booting an on-demand instance from an image.

27. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the on-demand instances are configured to run using one or more cloud service APIs.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a memory component; and

a processing component that is arranged to operate on data to enable actions, the actions comprising;

obtaining credentials for accessing each of a plurality of mailbox accounts on a source

messaging system, wherein the credentials include administrative credentials, automatically requested user credentials, or a combination thereof;

dynamically associating computing resources including on-demand instances obtained from one or more cloud service providers for copying at least some mailbox content associated with the plurality of mailbox accounts; and

employing the obtained credentials and the associated computing resources to copy at least some mailbox content associated with each mailbox account from the source messaging system to the destination messaging system, wherein the computing resources are dynamically associated to tasks employed in the copying,

wherein associating computing resources further comprises prioritizing the computing resources to process the migration of the plurality of mailbox accounts based on at least one of cost, geographic location, bandwidth, availability, security, type, or speed.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the actions further comprise configuring the arrangement of the source messaging system and the destination messaging system for the copying, and wherein said configuring further comprises determining at least one of a location, messaging system type, and number of the mailbox accounts for copying.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising dynamically obtaining the computing resources including enabling bidding, by a third party to dynamically provide computing resources for processing the copying of at least some mailbox content associated with the plurality of identified mailbox accounts, wherein the bidding is based on at least one of cost, geographic location, bandwidth, availability, security, type, and speed.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein Obtaining credentials further comprises requesting a credential for accessing the mailbox account from each user of each identified mailbox account.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein obtaining credentials further comprises receiving a request for copying from each user of each mailbox account, wherein the request includes at least a credential.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising synchronizing content for the plurality of identified mailbox accounts that are migrated from the source messaging system to the destination messaging system, wherein the synchronization is based on at least one of a period of time or an event.

24. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein copying at least some mailbox content associated with the plurality of mailbox accounts comprises migrating the plurality of mailbox accounts from the source messaging system to the destination messaging system.

26. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the on-demand instances comprise a physical computer, a virtual computer, or a combination thereof.

14. A system comprising:

a storage device for storing and managing task and configuration information; and

one or more computing devices having at least a scheduler operating using at least one processor, for performing actions using in part the stored task and configuration information, including;

obtaining credentials for accessing each of a plurality of mailbox accounts on a source messaging system, wherein the credentials include administrative credentials, automatically requested user credentials, or a combination thereof;

dynamically associating computing resources including on-demand instances obtained from one or more cloud service providers for processing copying at least some mailbox content associated with the plurality of mailbox accounts; and

employing the obtained credentials and the associated computing resources to copy at least some mailbox content associated with each mailbox account from the source messaging system to the destination messaging system, wherein the computing resources are dynamically associated to tasks employed in the copying,

wherein associating computing resources further comprises prioritizing the computing resources to process the copying of at least some mailbox content associated with of the plurality of mailbox accounts based on at least one of cost, geographic location, bandwidth, availability, security, type, or speed.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising configuring the arrangement of the source messaging system and the destination messaging system for the copying, wherein said configuring further comprises determining at least one of a location, messaging system type, and number of mailbox accounts for copying.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising dynamically obtaining the computing resources including enabling bidding by a third party to dynamically provide computing resources for processing the copying of at least some mailbox content associated with the plurality of mailbox accounts, wherein the bidding is based on at least one of cost, geographic location, bandwidth, availability, security, type, and speed.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein obtaining credentials further comprises requesting a credential for accessing the mailbox account from each user of each mailbox account.

18. A method comprising:

providing configuration information regarding a source messaging system and a

destination messaging system to a migration or synchronization system, wherein the configuration information includes administrative credentials, automatically requested user credentials, or a combination thereof; and

submitting mailbox processing tasks to the migration or synchronization system, wherein the migration or synchronization system is separate from the source messaging system, and

wherein the migration or synchronization system is configured to dynamically associate computing resources sufficient to perform the mailbox processing tasks to the mailbox processing tasks, the computing resources including on-demand instances obtained from one or more cloud service providers,

wherein the migration or synchronization system is configured to associate computing resources by prioritizing the computing resources to process the copying of at least some mailbox content associated with of the plurality of mailbox accounts based on at least one of cost, geographic location, bandwidth, availability, security, type, or speed.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said submitting mailbox processing tasks comprises submitting the mailbox processing tasks using a web site.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising monitoring status of the mailbox processing tasks using an interface to the migration system.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the interface comprises a web site.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the migration system is further configured to obtain mailbox credentials for migrating or synchronizing the plurality of mailbox accounts.