Data relocation in global storage cloud environments

• US 9,916,184 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2011
• Issued: 03/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Jain, Bhushan P., Patil, Sandeep R., Ramanathan, Sri, Trevathan, Matthew B., Tulshigiri, Ujwala P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thu Ha
• Application Number:
  US13/309,640
• Publication Number:
  US 20130144978A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,293 Days
• Field of Search: 709217, 709218, 709219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/502 Proximity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Methods and systems for data relocation in global storage cloud environments are provided. A method includes locating a data server near a travel location of a user based on one or more travel plans of the user. The method further includes transferring data of the user from a home data server near a home location of the user to the data server near the travel location.

Claims

1. A method of relocating data utilizing a computer implemented data relocation system, the method comprising:

mapping, by one or more computing devices, a user device to a home data server to store a plurality of user digital data files;

locating by the one or more computing devices, a data server near a travel location of a user based on one or more travel plans of the user;

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, one or more user-defined policies for the plurality of user digital data files from a policy database, the user-defined policies including (i) an owner of a digital data file including a user identifier (ID) associated with the file, (ii) a class of a digital data file based on file contents comprising confidentiality, semantic content and metadata, and (iii) one or more travel locations where a digital data file may be relevant or used during travel;

index and sort the one or more user-defined policies based on an owner and class of each policy of the one or more policies;

accessing, by the one or more computing devices, the home data server storing the plurality of user digital data files;

filtering, by the one or more computing devices, the plurality of user digital data files to be transferred based on the user-defined policies to determine which of the plurality of user digital data files to transfer;

automatically transferring, by the one or more computing devices, at least one of the plurality of the user digital data files from the home data server to the data server near the travel location based on the filtering; and

indicating, by the one or more computing devices, how the user digital data files are to be migrated and replicated between the home data server and the data server near the travel location so that certain user digital data files can only be replicated at the data server near the travel location while avoiding migration of the certain user digital data files back to the home data server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data server is a nearest data server to the travel location.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the travel location is one of a final travel location and an intermediate travel location, of the user during travel.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving the one or more travel plans from at least one of a user calendar and one or more travel planner tools.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the user sets the one or more travel plans in at least one of the user calendar and the one or more travel planner tools.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the transferring of the digital data files further comprises at least one of migrating and replicating the user digital data file from the home data server to the data server near the travel location.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the transferring of the user digital data files is performed one of before and after the user travels to the travel location.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user-defined policies additionally comprises:

one or more travel locations where the file may be relevant for use;

one or more blacklist locations where the digital data file cannot be transferred;

costs for data transfer;

a transfer time of the digital data file; and

an indication of whether the digital data file is to be at least one of migrated and replicated from the home data server to the data server near the travel location.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising fetching at least one digital data file from the user digital data files stored in the home data server when the digital data file is required by the user for use at the travel location but is unavailable in the transferred at least one of the plurality of the user digital data files.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising transferring at least one of the plurality of the user digital data files from the data server near the travel location back to the home data server after the user accesses the at least one of the plurality of the user digital data files.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a service provider at least one of creates, maintains, deploys and supports a computer infrastructure which performs the steps of claim 1, the service provider provided on a subscription, advertising, and fee basis.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the user-defined policies further comprise:

a key which includes an owner and a class associated with the user digital data files;

a comma separated list of locations for which the user digital data files are relevant and required; and

a comma separated list of locations for which the user digital data files cannot be accessed.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the one or more travel plans from at least one of a user calendar and one or more travel planner tools, wherein the user sets the one or more travel plans in at least one of the user calendar and the one or more travel planner tools; and

transferring at least one of the plurality of the user digital data files from the data server near the travel location back to the home data server after the user accesses the at least one of the plurality of the user digital data files,

wherein each of the user-defined policies additionally comprises;

one or more travel locations where the file may be relevant for use;

one or more blacklist locations where the digital data file cannot be transferred;

a transfer time of the digital data file; and

an indication of whether the digital data file is to be at least one of migrated and replicated from the home data server to the data server near the travel location.

14. A system implemented in hardware, comprising:

a computer system operable to;

map a user device to a home data server to store user digital data files;

locate a data server near a travel location of a user based on one or more travel plans of the user;

determine one or more user-defined policies for the user digital data files, each of the one or more user-defined policies indicating a relevance of each of the user digital data files for use at the travel location of the user, the user-defined policies including (i) an owner of a digital data file including a user identifier (ID) associated with the file, (ii) a class of a digital data file based on file contents comprising confidentiality, semantic content and metadata, and (iii) one or more travel locations where a digital data file may be relevant or used during travel;

index and sort the one or more user-defined policies based on an owner and class of each policy of the one or more policies;

filter the user digital data files based on the one or more user-defined policies;

selectively transfer a plurality of the user digital data files related to business clients of the user from the home data server near a home location of the user to the data server near the travel location based on the filtering; and

migrate the user digital data files from the home data server to the data server near the travel location so that certain user digital data files can only be replicated at the data server near the travel location while avoiding migration of the certain user digital data files back to the home data server.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the determining of the one or more user defined policies comprises receiving the one or more user-defined policies from a policy database.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the user-defined policies further comprises:

one or more blacklist locations where the file cannot be transferred;

costs for data transfer;

a transfer time of the file; and

an indication of whether the file is to be at least one of migrated and replicated from the home data server to the data server near the travel location.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the selectively transferring of the digital data files further comprises at least one of migrating and replicating the user digital data files from the home data server to the data server near the travel location.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the computer infrastructure is further operable to receive the one or more travel plans of the user from at least one of a user calendar and one or more travel planner tools.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein:

the data server is a nearest data server to the travel location; and

the travel location is one of a final travel location and an intermediate travel location, of the user during travel.

20. A computer program product comprising a tangible computer usable hardware storage device having readable program code embodied in the tangible computer usable hardware storage device, the computer program product includes at least one component operable to:

map a user device to a home data server to store user digital data files;

determine one or more user-defined policies for the user digital data files, each of the one or more user-defined policies indicating a relevance of each of the user digital data files for use at a travel location of the user, the user-defined policies including (i) an owner of a digital data file including a user identifier (ID) associated with the file, (ii) a class of a digital data file based on file contents comprising confidentiality, semantic content and metadata, and (iii) one or more travel locations where a digital data file may be relevant or used during travel;

index and sort the one or more user-defined policies based on an owner and class of each policy of the one or more policies;

enter one or more travel plans of the user through a user device and nodes of a cloud computing environment;

locate a data server near the travel location based on the one or more travel plans of the user;

filter the user digital data files based on the one or more user-defined policies to determine select files to be transferred;

transfer the select files to be transferred from the home data server near a home location of the user to the data server near the travel location;

migrate the user digital data files from the home data server to the data server near the travel location so that certain user digital data files can only be replicated at the data server near the travel location while avoiding migration of the certain user digital data files back to the home data server;

determine whether a user digital data file required by the user at the travel location is present in the migrated user digital data files;

fetch the required user digital data file from the home data server; and

migrate the required user digital data file to the travel location.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the at least one component is further operable to receive the one or more travel plans from at least one of a user calendar and one or more travel planner tools.

22. A method of data relocation in global storage cloud environments, comprising:

providing a computer system, being operable to;

map a user device to a home data server to store data of a user;

receive one or more travel plans of a user from at least one of a user calendar and one or more travel planner tools;

locate a data server near an intermediate travel location of the user based on the one or more travel plans while the user is traveling prior to reaching a final destination;

index and sort one or more user-defined policies based on an owner and class of each policy of the one or more policies, the user-defined policies including (i) an owner of a digital data file including a user identifier (ID) associated with the file, (ii) a class of a digital data file based on file contents comprising confidentiality, semantic content and metadata, and (iii) one or more travel locations where a digital data file may be relevant or used during travel;

access the one or more user-defined policies by a primary key which includes an owner and a class of a desired policy out of the one or more user-defined policies;

filter data of the user based on the one or more user-defined policies to determine select data to be transferred;

transfer the select data from the home data server near a home location of the user to the data server near the intermediate travel location;

locate a data server near a final travel location of the user based on the one or more travel plans;

transfer the select data of the user from the data server near the intermediate travel location of the user to the data server near the final travel location; and

migrate the data of the user from the home data server to the data server near the travel location so that certain data of the user can only be replicated at the data server near the travel location while avoiding migration of the certain data of the user back to the home data server.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the data server is a nearest data server to the intermediate travel location.

24. A computer system for data relocation in global storage cloud environments, the system comprising:

a CPU, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage media;

first program instructions to map a user device to a home data server to store user digital data files;

second program instructions to enter one or more travel plans of a user through a user device and nodes of a cloud computing environment;

third program instructions to receive one or more travel plans of a user from at least one of a user calendar and one or more travel planner tools;

fourth program instructions to receive one or more user-defined policies of the digital data files of the user from a policy database, each of the user-defined policies indicating a relevance of each of the user digital data files for use at a travel location of the user, and the user-defined policies including (i) an owner of a digital data file including a user identifier (ID) associated with the file, (ii) a class of a digital data file based on file contents comprising confidentiality, semantic content and metadata, and (iii) one or more travel locations where a digital data file may be relevant or used during travel;

fifth program instructions to categorize the user digital data files based on the one or more user-defined policies;

sixth program instructions to locate a data server near an intermediate travel location of the user based on the one or more travel plans while the user is traveling prior to reaching a final destination;

seventh program instructions to locate a data server near the travel location based on the one or more travel plans;

eighth program instructions to index and sort the one or more user-defined policies based on an owner and class of each policy of the one or more policies;

ninth program instructions to selectively transfer select ones of the categorized user digital data files from a home data server near a home location of the user to a data server near the travel location based on the one or more user-defined policies of each of the user digital data files;

tenth program instructions to migrate the user digital data files from the home data server to the data server near the travel location so that certain user digital data files can only be replicated at the data server near the travel location while avoiding migration of the certain user digital data files back to the home data server;

eleventh program instructions to determine whether a user digital data file required by the user is present in the migrated user digital data files;

twelfth program instructions to fetch the required user digital data file not present in the migrated user digital data files from the home data server; and

thirteenth program instructions to migrate the required user digital data file to the data server near the travel location,

wherein the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh twelfth and thirteenth program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory.

25. The computer system of claim 24, wherein:

the data server is a nearest data server to the travel location; and

the selectively transferring of the categorized user digital data files further comprises at least one of migrating and replicating the select ones of the categorized user digital data files from the home data server to the data server near the travel location.