Distributed virtual storage cloud architecture and a method thereof

• US 9,128,626 B2
• Filed: 10/03/2011
• Issued: 09/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Peter Chacko
• Original Assignee: Peter Chacko
• Inventors: Chacko, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Casanova, Jorge A
• Application Number:
  US13/877,049
• Publication Number:
  US 20130204849A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,436 Days
• Field of Search: 707/692
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0641 De-duplication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0661 Format or protocol conversion arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• 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 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 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a distributed information storage system which functions as virtual cloud storage overlay on top of physical cloud storage systems. The disclosure discloses transparently solving all the data management related security, virtualization, reliability and enables transparent cloud storage migration, cloud storage virtualization, information dispersal and integration across disparate cloud storage devices operated by different providers or on-premise storage. The cloud storage is owned or hosted by same or different third-party providers who own the information contained in the storage which eliminates cloud dependencies. This present disclosure functions as a distributed cloud storage delivery platform enabling various functionalities like cloud storage virtualization, cloud storage integration, cloud storage management and cloud level RAID.

Claims

1. A virtual cloud storage system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores processor-executable instructions, which, on execution, causes the processor to;

receive cloud service request from at least one client machine to perform cloud storage services on a data;

identify one or more cloud storage service providers for processing the request based on metadata of the at least one client machine, wherein the cloud storage service providers comprise cloud storage devices for providing cloud storage services;

extracting first storage parameters from at least one of the cloud service request;

performing data services on the cloud service request;

sending the cloud service request to the identified one or more cloud storage service providers using second storage parameters, wherein second storage parameters are created by translating the first storage parameters;

receiving reply from the identified cloud storage service providers along with third storage parameter, in response to the cloud service request; and

translating the reply and the third storage parameters to fourth storage parameters;

updating a database of the virtual cloud storage system with the information about the data, a part of the first, second, third and fourth storage parameters and the data services performed,

wherein the virtual cloud storage system is configured to operate, in a manner that is transparent to both the at least one client machine and the cloud storage service providers, by using respective cloud service protocols of the at least one client machine and the cloud storage service providers, and the virtual cloud storage system intercepts all cloud requests from the at least one client machine and cloud replies from the cloud storage service providers.

2. The system of claim 1, where-in data services are at least one of result of data engineering or transformation operation creating a second set of data with a first set of data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the data services are performed on at least one of data exchanged between the at least one client machine and the virtual cloud storage system and the data stored in the one or more cloud storage devices.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the data service is at least one of cloud storage virtualization, cloud storage management, cloud storage migration, cloud storage integration, cloud RAID, cloud storage de-duplication and information dispersal across the one or more cloud storage devices, located at, operated and managed by the one or more cloud storage service providers.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one virtual cloud storage system stores part of the data related to the at least one client machine in the database.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one virtual cloud storage system stores the data of the at least one client machine in the one or more cloud storage devices after de-duplicating the data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one virtual cloud storage system stores the data of the at least one client machine by dividing the data into multiple fragments and storing each of the multiple fragments in the one or more cloud storage devices.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the virtual cloud storage system comprises one or more cloud proxies performing as a virtual, cloud storage network.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein information about the data exchanged and the data services performed is replicated to the one or more cloud proxies of the virtual cloud storage system.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the virtual cloud storage system and the at least one client machine are connected through at least one first network interface.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the virtual cloud storage system and the at least one client machine are connected through at least one second network interface.

8. A method to implement cloud storage hypervisor, to manage storage using virtual cloud storage system, comprising:

receiving, by a virtual cloud storage system, a cloud service request from at least one client machine to machine to perform cloud storage services on a data;

identify, by the virtual cloud storage system, one or more cloud storage service providers for processing the request based on metadata of the at least one client machine, wherein the cloud storage service providers comprise cloud storage devices for providing cloud storage services;

extracting, by the virtual cloud storage system, first storage parameters from at least one of the cloud service request;

performing data services on the cloud service request;

sending, by the virtual cloud storage system, the cloud service request to the identified one or more cloud storage service providers using second storage parameters, wherein second storage parameters are created by translating the first storage parameters;

receiving, by the virtual cloud storage system, reply from the identified cloud storage service providers along with third storage parameter, in response to the cloud service request; and

translating, by the virtual cloud storage system, the reply and the third storage parameters to fourth storage parameters;

updating, by the virtual cloud storage system, a database of the virtual cloud storage system with the information about the data, a part of the first second, third and fourth storage parameters and the data services performed.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more data services are selected from a group comprising data de-duplication, information dispersal, data integration, data migration, RAID, cloud storage virtualization or more data transformation algorithms.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the data services are performed on at least one of data exchanged between the at least one client machine and the one or more cloud storage devices and data stored in the cloud storage devices.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the data corresponding to the client machine is replicated across the one or more cloud storage devices of one or more cloud storage service providers.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the metadata for de-duplication and information dispersal is stored in the cloud storage devices and the database of the one or more cloud proxies.

17. The method of claim 8, wherein the virtual cloud storage system comprises one or more cloud proxies.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein, with information about the data exchanged and the data services performed is replicated to the one or more cloud proxies of the virtual cloud storage system.

19. The method of claim 8, wherein each of the virtual cloud storage system, the at least one client machine and the cloud storage service providers process data using a predefined protocol.

20. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one virtual cloud storage system stores the data of the at least one client machine in the one or more cloud storage devices after de-duplicating the data.

21. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one virtual cloud storage system stores the data of the least one client machine by dividing the data into multiple fragments and storing each of the multiple fragments in the cloud storage devices.