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

• US 9,720,920 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2014
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Murphy, Elissa E., Sosnosky, Lara M., Mehr, John D., Moromisato, George, Cheng, Lili
• Primary Examiner(s): PARK, GRACE A
• Application Number:
  US14/312,318
• Publication Number:
  US 20140304232A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,135 Days
• 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 the computer-executable instructions, when executed, instruct performance of operations that archive data, the operations comprising:

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 archived version of the identified data.

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

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

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

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

4. The memory of claim 1, wherein the log includes a contextual event description having a reference to the current version of the identified data designated for backup.

5. The memory of claim 1, 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 data.

6. The memory of claim 1, wherein:

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

7. 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;

interface with a backup data store having multiple versions of a data file archived therein;

receive a set of contextual event descriptions, wherein at least two of the contextual event descriptions of the set each includes information regarding an event from a user'"'"'s calendar and information that correlates that event to a corresponding version of the data file that was backed up in temporal proximity to that event; and

output the at least two contextual event descriptions of the set on a display in conjunction with the versions of the data file corresponding thereto.

8. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor also respectively store and execute instructions to:

receive at least one contextual event description of the at least two contextual event descriptions from at least one of a social networking service feed associated with a second user with whom data privileges in connection with the data file are shared or from a calendar application associated with the second user with whom the data privileges in connection with the data file are shared.

9. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor also respectively store and execute instructions to:

enable selection of a version of the data file corresponding to one of the at least two contextual event descriptions; and

restore a selected version of the data file in response to a selection thereof.

10. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor also respectively store and execute instructions to:

filter the set of contextual event descriptions into the at least two contextual event descriptions based on a particular user, a particular group of users, or a particular source.

11. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor also respectively store and execute instructions to:

filter the set of contextual event descriptions into the at least two contextual event descriptions based on a keyword.

12. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor also respectively store and execute instructions to:

aggregate contextual event descriptions from multiple sources into the set of contextual event descriptions, wherein each member of the set includes a description of a respective event associated with a context of the user at about a time associated with the corresponding version of the data file.

13. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor also respectively store and execute instructions to:

back up another version of the data file to the backup data store;

associate another contextual event description that correlates another event to the other version of the data file; and

add the other contextual event description to the set of contextual event descriptions.

14. The computing device of claim 7, wherein each of the at least two contextual event descriptions also includes information regarding a context of the user near to a time the corresponding version of the data file was backed up.

15. A method of restoring backed up data, the method comprising:

interfacing with a backup data store having multiple versions of a data file archived therein;

receiving a set of contextual event descriptions, wherein at least two of the contextual event descriptions of the set each includes information regarding an event from a user'"'"'s calendar and information that correlates that event to a corresponding version of the data file that was backed up in temporal proximity to that event; and

outputting, on a display device, the information regarding the events in conjunction with the versions of the data file corresponding thereto.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein each of the at least two contextual event descriptions also includes information regarding a context of the user near to a time the corresponding version of the data file was backed up.

17. The method of claim 15, 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.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein:

each of the at least two contextual event descriptions also includes information inferred from a state of at least one of a computing system, an environment, or the user regarding a time near when the corresponding version of the data file was backed up.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

enabling selection of a version of the data file corresponding to one of the at least two contextual event descriptions; and

restoring a selected version of the data file in response to a selection thereof.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises:

backing up another version of the data file to the backup data store before restoring the selected version of the data file.