Cloud-synchronized local storage management

• US 10,579,265 B2
• Filed: 10/18/2017
• Issued: 03/03/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Inventors: Andrew, Jeffrey S., Liu, Harrison W., Wright, Edward C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsai, Sheng Jen
• Application Number:
  US15/787,043
• Publication Number:
  US 20190114086A1
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• Field of Search: 711154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0614 Improving the reliability of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0649 Lifecycle management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0652 Erasing, e.g. deleting, data cleaning, moving of data to a wastebasket
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A digital asset management application stores a mixture of original and lossy assets in a user'"'"'s local storage resource. This mixture is dynamically adjusted in response to usage patterns and availability of local storage. If local storage is limited, the number of original assets stored locally is reduced. If local storage resources are critically low, lossy assets are purged. A user'"'"'s interactions with his/her digital assets are monitored, and assets that are perceived to be less important to a user are purged from local storage before assets that are perceived to be more important. An asset may be deemed to be “important” based on any number of relevant criteria, such as user selection, user rating, or user interaction. Coordinating asset allocation between local and cloud-based storage resources requires little or no active management on behalf of the user, thus transparently providing the user with the benefits of cloud storage.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented asset management method that comprises:

providing a digital asset management application that is executable on a local computing device, wherein the digital asset management application is configured to communicate with a local storage resource and a cloud storage resource;

accessing an index that lists digital assets which are stored in the local storage resource, wherein the index indicates an importance and a last access timestamp for at least a portion of the listed digital assets, wherein the listed digital assets stored in the local storage resource include a plurality of original assets and a corresponding plurality of lossy assets, and wherein each of the lossy assets represents a lower fidelity version of the corresponding original asset;

invoking a proactive purge operation at a specified time, wherein the proactive purge operation causes a first digital asset to be removed from the local storage resource based on an importance, indicated in the index, that is associated with the first digital asset; and

invoking a reactive purge operation in response to a storage condition associated with the local storage resource, wherein the reactive purge operation causes a plurality of digital assets to be removed from the local storage resource, wherein the plurality of digital assets removed in the reactive purge operation are selected for removal based on dually ranking the digital assets based first on an importance and second on a last access timestamp of such assets, as indicated in the index,

wherein when the reactive purge operation is invoked in response to a critical storage condition that is triggered by less than a relatively lower threshold quantity of available storage existing at the local storage resource, both original assets and lossy assets are removed from the local storage resource;

wherein when the reactive purge operation is invoked in response to a low storage condition that is triggered by less than a relatively higher threshold quantity of available storage existing at the local storage resource, only one or more original assets are removed from the local storage resource, without removing lossy assets; and

wherein the reactive purge operation is invoked in response to the critical storage condition, and then if the low storage condition remains, the reactive purge operation invoked in response to the critical storage condition is followed by invocation of the reactive purge operation in response to the low storage condition.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage condition occurs when a specified proportion of available storage provided by the local storage resource is dedicated to hosting assets managed by the digital asset management application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the storage condition occurs when a specified proportion of available storage provided by the local storage resource is dedicated to hosting assets managed by the digital asset management application; and

digital assets accessed within a specified time period of when the reactive purge operation is invoked are exempt from removal in the reactive purge operation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the proactive purge operation is invoked in response to launching the digital asset management application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the proactive purge operation is invoked in response to a designated time elapsing since a previous invocation of the proactive purge operation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the last access timestamps includes a date and a time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein during the critical storage condition, original assets are removed from the local storage resource before lossy assets are removed from the local storage resource.

8. A cloud-synchronized local storage management system that comprises:

a memory;

a processor that is coupled to, and capable of executing instructions stored in, the memory;

a local storage resource having stored therein a collection of digital assets and an asset index that lists at least a portion of the digital assets, wherein the asset index indicates an importance and a last access timestamp for at least a portion of the listed digital assets;

a proactive purge module that is stored in the memory and that comprises means for invoking a proactive purge operation at a specified time, wherein the proactive purge operation defines a first subset of the digital assets and causes digital assets in the first subset to be removed from the local storage resource, wherein digital assets are included in the first subset based on the importance indicated in the asset index, and wherein the last access timestamps are not considered in defining the first subset of digital assets; and

a reactive purge module that is stored in the memory and that comprises means for invoking a reactive purge operation in response to a storage condition associated with the local storage resource, wherein the reactive purge operation defines a second subset of the digital assets and causes digital assets in the second subset to be removed from the local storage resource, wherein digital assets are included in the second subset based on both (a) the importance indicated in the asset index and (b) the last access timestamps indicated in the asset index.

9. The cloud-synchronized local storage management system of claim 8, wherein:

the collection of digital assets stored in the local storage resource includes a plurality of original assets and a corresponding plurality of lossy assets; and

each of the lossy assets represents a lower fidelity version of the corresponding original asset.

10. The cloud-synchronized local storage management system of claim 8, wherein

the collection of digital assets stored in the local storage resource includes a plurality of original assets and a corresponding plurality of lossy assets;

each of the lossy assets represents a lower fidelity version of the corresponding original asset; and

both original assets and lossy assets are removed from the local storage resource during the reactive purge operation.

11. The cloud-synchronized local storage management system of claim 8, further comprising a user interface module configured to receive a user-defined target local storage footprint that defines a specified proportion of available storage provided by the local storage resource that is dedicated to hosting the collection of digital assets, wherein the storage condition is triggered when the target local storage footprint is surpassed.

12. The cloud-synchronized local storage management system of claim 8, wherein the reactive purge operation comprises ranking the second subset of the digital assets based on the last access timestamps of the ranked second subset of digital assets.

13. The cloud-synchronized local storage management system of claim 8, wherein the reactive purge operation comprises dually ranking the second subset of the digital assets based first on the importance, and second on the last access timestamps, of the ranked second subset of digital assets.

19. The cloud-synchronized local storage management system of claim 8, wherein:

the collection of digital assets stored in the local storage resource includes a plurality of original assets and a corresponding plurality of lossy assets;

the reactive purge operation selects, in the second subset of the digital assets, one or more original assets and one or more lossy assets, in response to a first storage conditions invoking the reactive purge; and

the reactive purge operation selects, in the second subset of the digital assets, one or more original assets, without selecting any lossy assets, in response to a second storage conditions invoking the reactive purge.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a cloud-synchronized local storage management process to be carried out, the process comprising:

providing a digital asset management application that is executing on a local computing device, wherein the digital asset management application is in communication with a local storage resource and a cloud storage resource;

accessing an index that lists digital assets which are stored in the local storage resource, wherein the index indicates an importance and a last access timestamp for at least a portion of the listed digital assets, wherein the local storage stores;

(i) first digital content comprising digital content used by the digital asset management application, the first digital content including the digital assets that are managed by the digital asset management application and are listed in the index, and

(ii) second digital content that is separate from the first digital content;

invoking a proactive purge operation at a specified time, wherein the proactive purge operation causes a first digital asset to be removed from the local storage resource based on an importance, indicated in the index, that is associated with the first digital asset; and

invoking a reactive purge operation in response to a storage condition associated with the local storage resource, wherein the reactive purge operation causes a second digital asset to be removed from the local storage resource based on an importance and a last access timestamp, indicated in the index, that is associated with the second digital asset,

wherein the storage condition is triggered when an amount of the local storage resource consumed by the listed digital assets exceeds a specific percentage of an available storage capacity of the local storage resource, and wherein the available storage capacity is based on a difference between (i) a total storage capacity of the local storage resource and (ii) the second digital content.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein:

the listed digital assets stored in the local storage resource include a plurality of original assets and a corresponding plurality of lossy assets;

each of the lossy assets represents a lower fidelity version of the corresponding original asset;

when the reactive purge operation is invoked in response to a critical storage condition that is triggered by less than a relatively lower threshold quantity of available storage existing at the local storage resource, both original assets and lossy assets are removed from the local storage resource; and

when the reactive purge operation is invoked in response to a low storage condition that is triggered by less than a relatively higher threshold quantity of available storage existing at the local storage resource, only original assets are removed from the local storage resource.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the index further indicates a storage location for the listed digital assets, wherein the storage location refers to a global unique identifier for a device on which a given digital asset is stored.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein:

the first digital asset that is removed from the local storage resource is an original asset;

the first digital asset exists in the cloud storage resource; and

a lossy version of the first digital asset exists in the local storage resource.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the process further comprises determining an importance for a particular digital asset stored in the local storage resource based on a factor selected from a group consisting of a user selection, a user ranking, a last modification time, an time of importation into local storage resource, and a time of last access.