Cloud storage brokering service

• US 9,325,791 B1
• Filed: 08/12/2013
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Western Digital Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Western Digital Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Blahaerath, Grant C., Hooper, Gary J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ndiaye, Cheikh
• Application Number:
  US13/965,085
• Time in Patent Office: 988 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/217, 709/218, 709/223, 709/225, 709/226, 709/227, 709/203
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/06 Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers , e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• 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 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• 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 67/562 Brokering proxy services

Abstract

Systems and methods for brokering storage services are disclosed. In one embodiment, the brokering system is configured to receive, from a client device, a request indicating a desired configuration for storing target data in at least one of the plurality of cloud storage services. The system can determine a first selection comprising at least one storage service from the plurality of cloud storage services based on the request, provision storage in the plurality of cloud storage services based on the determined first selection and provide, to the client device, a temporary manifest indicating the provisioned storage, wherein the temporary manifest comprises access data that enables the client device to access the provisioned storage in the cloud storage services. The system can then store the temporary manifest and determine whether the client device completed storing the target data on the provisioned storage based on a presence of the temporary manifest.

Claims

1. A system for brokering a plurality of cloud storage services, the system comprising:

memory that stores one or more storage manifests comprising access data for enabling client devices to access provisioned storage in the plurality of cloud storage services; and

one or more processors configured to;

receive, from a client device, a request indicating a desired configuration for storing target data in at least one of the plurality of cloud storage services;

determine a first selection comprising at least one storage service from the plurality of cloud storage services based on the request;

provision storage in the plurality of cloud storage services based on the determined first selection;

provide, to the client device, a temporary storage manifest indicating the provisioned storage, wherein the temporary storage manifest comprises access data enabling the client device to access the provisioned storage in the cloud storage services;

store the temporary storage manifest;

determine whether the client device completed storing the target data on the provisioned storage based on a presence of the temporary storage manifest; and

in response to determining that the client device completed storing the target data, replace the temporary storage manifest with a permanent storage manifest; and

in response to determining that the client device failed to complete storing the target data, deprovision the provisioned storage and deleting the temporary storage manifest.

2. The system of claim 1, the one or more processors further configured to provide, to the client device, a set of pre-determined selections of storage services.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the selection of at least one storage service comprises selecting at least one storage service based at least partly on a financial cost, an amount of storage requested by the client device, or a service level agreement offered by the storage service.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the selection of at least one storage service comprises selecting at least one storage service based at least partly on data indicating an availability of the storage service or data indicating a performance of the storage service.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the selection of at least one storage service comprises updating, on a periodic basis, the selection of at least one storage service.

6. The system of claim 1, the one or more processors further configured to auto-initiate migration of the target data from a first storage service to a newly selected second storage service.

7. The system of claim 6, the one or more processors further configured auto-initiate updating of a permanent manifest associated with the target data to reflect the migration of the target data to the second storage service.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein determining the selection of at least one storage service comprises updating, upon a request from the client device, the selection of at least one storage service.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein determining the selection of at least one storage service comprises updating, in response to a change by the storage service, the selection of at least one storage service.

10. A method of brokering a plurality of cloud storage services, the method comprising:

receiving, from a client device, a request indicating a desired configuration for storing target data in at least one of the plurality of cloud storage services;

determining, by a brokering server, a first selection comprising at least one storage service from the plurality of cloud storage services based on the request;

provisioning, by a brokering server, storage in the plurality of cloud storage services based on the determined first selection;

providing, to the client device, a temporary storage manifest indicating the provisioned storage, wherein the temporary storage manifest comprises access data enabling the client device to access the provisioned storage in the cloud storage services;

storing, by the brokering server, the temporary storage manifest;

determining whether the client device completed storing the target data on the provisioned storage based on a presence of the temporary storage manifest; and

in response to determining that the client device completed storing the target data, replacing the temporary storage manifest with a permanent storage manifest; and

in response to determining that the client device failed to complete storing the target data, deprovisioning the provisioned storage and deleting the temporary storage manifest.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing, to the client device, a set of pre-determined selections of storage services.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the selection of at least one storage service comprises selecting at least one storage service based at least partly on a financial cost, an amount of storage requested by the client device, or a service level agreement offered by the storage service.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the selection of at least one storage service comprises selecting at least one storage service based at least partly on data indicating an availability of the storage service or data indicating a performance of the storage service.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the selection of at least one storage service comprises updating, on a periodic basis, the selection of at least one storage service.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising auto-initiating migration of the target data from a first storage service to a second storage service newly selected during the updating.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising auto-initiating updating of a permanent manifest associated with the target data to reflect the migration of the target data to the second storage service.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the selection of at least one storage service comprises updating, upon a request from the client device, the selection of at least one storage service.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the selection of at least one storage service comprises updating, in response to a change by the storage service, the selection of at least one storage service.