System and method for providing data protection workflows in a network environment

• US 9,430,564 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2014
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: McAfee, LLC
• Original Assignee: McAfee, Inc. (McAfee, LLC)
• Inventors: Jha, Bimalesh, Maini, Nitin, Patel, Sujata, Jain, Ankit R., Pawar, Avinash Vishnu, Ahuja, Ratinder Paul Singh, Hegde, Damodar K., Nanganure, Rajaram V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Shiow-Jy
• Application Number:
  US14/157,130
• Publication Number:
  US 20140164314A1
• Time in Patent Office: 957 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/358 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

A method is provided in one example and includes receiving first sets of metadata elements representing an inventory of objects in a data storage location of a network environment and presenting an inventory view of the objects to a user. The inventory view includes a first summary of the inventory objects. The method further includes receiving a request from the user to manipulate the inventory view based on a first selected dimension group and presenting to the user a manipulated inventory view that includes a second summary of a first subset of the inventory objects. In more specific embodiments, the method includes receiving a request from the user to perform a protection task on objects of the first subset and initiating the protection task. The protection task includes one of applying a remediation policy to the objects of the first subset and registering the objects of the first subset.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory computer readable media that includes code for execution that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

receive a plurality of sets of metadata elements representing a plurality of objects, respectively, wherein the objects of the plurality of objects are classified by a classification module evaluating contents of the objects to determine classifications based on one or more categories, wherein an object is classified based on a particular category if the object contains content corresponding to at least one concept associated with the particular category;

generate a summary of the plurality of objects including;

a total category count representing a total number of objects classified based on the particular category;

one or more sets of dimension groups corresponding respectively to the one or more categories, wherein the dimension groups of each set of dimension groups correspond to respective metadata dimensions that represent respective types of metadata;

provide, for display on a display screen of a computer, a classification view of the classified objects, wherein the classification view includes the summary of the plurality of objects;

receive a request to manipulate the classification view to subdivide the total category count into two or more subset counts based on a selected dimension group;

generate the two or more subset counts corresponding respectively to two or more subsets of the objects classified based on the particular category, wherein each subset is defined by a respective hierarchical path in a hierarchical arrangement formed by the particular category and at least the metadata dimensions of the selected dimension group, and wherein each subset includes objects associated with a different metadata element of the selected dimension group;

provide, for display on the display screen, a manipulated classification view including the two or more subset counts and the hierarchical path for each corresponding subset;

receive a request from a user to perform a protection task on objects of a selected subset of the two or more subsets; and

initiate the protection task for the objects of the selected subset.

2. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1, further comprising:

creating an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) data structure to represent the plurality of sets of metadata elements and the one or more categories, wherein each of the one or more categories is associated with at least one of the plurality of objects,

wherein the summary is generated from the OLAP data structure.

3. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the types of metadata include one or more of devices, content repositories, shares, file types, file sizes, and owners.

4. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the request to manipulate is associated with a user selecting the selected dimension group that corresponds to the particular category.

5. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the summary of the plurality of objects further includes one or more total sizes, each total size based on a combination of sizes of objects classified according to one of the one or more categories.

6. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the code, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

receive a selection from a user specifying the data storage location to be searched for the plurality of objects based on the category.

7. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 6, wherein the data storage location includes one or more content repositories.

8. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 6, wherein the data storage location includes a share of a content repository.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the protection task includes one of a remediation task to remediate each one of the objects of the selected subset and a registration task to register each one of the objects of the selected subset.

10. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the summary of the plurality of objects further includes each category of the one or more categories forming a respective hierarchical arrangement with the metadata dimensions.

11. A method to be executed by a processor in a network environment, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of sets of metadata elements representing a plurality of objects, respectively, wherein the objects of the plurality of objects are classified by a classification module evaluating contents of the objects to determine classifications based on one or more categories, wherein an object is classified based on a particular category if the object contains content corresponding to at least one concept associated with the particular category;

generating a summary of the plurality of objects including;

a total category count representing a total number of objects classified based on the particular category;

one or more sets of dimension groups corresponding respectively to the one or more categories, wherein the dimension groups of each set of dimension groups correspond to respective metadata dimensions that represent respective types of metadata;

providing, for display on a display screen of a computer, a classification view of the classified objects, wherein the classification view includes the summary of the plurality of objects;

receiving a request to manipulate the classification view to subdivide the total category count into two or more subset counts based on a selected dimension group;

generating the two or more subset counts corresponding respectively to two or more subsets of the objects classified based on the particular category, wherein each subset is defined by a respective hierarchical path in a hierarchical arrangement formed by the particular category and at least the metadata dimensions of the selected dimension group, and wherein each subset includes objects associated with a different metadata element of the selected dimension group;

providing, for display on the display screen, a manipulated classification view including the two or more subset counts and the hierarchical path for each corresponding subset;

receiving a request from a user to perform a protection task on objects of a selected subset of the two or more subsets; and

initiating the protection task for the objects of the selected subset.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

create an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) data structure to represent the plurality of sets of metadata elements and the one or more categories, wherein each of the one or more categories is associated with at least one of the plurality of objects,

wherein the summary is generated from the OLAP data structure.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the protection task includes one of a remediation task to remediate each one of the objects of the selected subset and a registration task to register each one of the objects of the selected subset.

14. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory element configured to store data; and

one or more processors operable to execute instructions associated with the data, wherein the processor and the memory element cooperate such that the apparatus is configured to;

receive a plurality of sets of metadata elements representing a plurality of objects, respectively, wherein the objects of the plurality of objects are classified by a classification module evaluating contents of the objects to determine classifications based on one or more categories, wherein an object is classified based on a particular category if the object contains content corresponding to at least one concept associated with the particular category;

generate a summary of the plurality of objects including;

a total category count representing a total number of objects classified based on the particular category;

one or more sets of dimension groups corresponding respectively to the one or more categories, wherein the dimension groups of each set of dimension groups correspond to respective metadata dimensions that represent respective types of metadata;

provide, for display on a display screen of a computer, a classification view of the classified objects, wherein the classification view includes the summary of the plurality of objects;

receive a request to manipulate the classification view to subdivide the total category count into two or more subset counts based on a selected dimension group;

generate the two or more subset counts corresponding respectively to two or more subsets of the objects classified based on the particular category, wherein each subset is defined by a respective hierarchical path in a hierarchical arrangement formed by the particular category and at least the metadata dimensions of the selected dimension group, and wherein each subset includes objects associated with a different metadata element of the selected dimension group;

provide, for display on the display screen, a manipulated classification view including the two or more subset counts and the hierarchical path for each corresponding subset;

receive a request from a user to perform a protection task on objects of a selected subset of the two or more subsets; and

initiate the protection task for the objects of the selected subset.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the request to manipulate is associated with a user selecting the selected dimension group that corresponds to the particular category.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the protection task includes one of a remediation task to remediate each one of the objects of the selected subset and a registration task to register each one of the objects of the selected subset.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the summary of the plurality of objects further includes each category of the one or more categories forming a respective hierarchical arrangement with the metadata dimensions.