Sharing data in scalable software blade architecture

• US 20070101022A1
• Filed: 10/28/2005
• Published: 05/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Venkatachary, Schulz, Torsten, Boerries, Marco, Meyer, Markus
• Granted Patent: US 7,870,288 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/244
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes

Abstract

A system and method for sharing data between two users on different blades in scalable software blade architecture are disclosed. The system includes a plurality of blades, where each blade includes software components and hardware components, each blade serves a predefined group of users, and each user is associated with one or more user devices. The system further includes a first blade and a second blade, where the first blade connects a first user to a first connected dataset and the second blade connects a second user to a second connected dataset, and the first blade and the second blade operate independent of each other, a blade manager for managing the first and second blades, a pipe device for connecting the first and second blades, and logic for sharing portions of the first connected dataset of the first user with the second user using the pipe device.

Claims

1. A system for sharing data, the system having a plurality of blades, wherein each blade includes software components and hardware components, each blade serves a predefined group of users, and each user is associated with one or more user devices, comprising:

a first blade and a second blade, wherein the first blade connects a first user to a first connected dataset and the second blade connects a second user to a second connected dataset, and wherein the first blade and the second blade operate independent of each other;

a blade manager for managing the first and second blades;

a pipe device for connecting the first and second blades; and

logic for sharing portions of the first connected dataset of the first user with the second user using the pipe device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a connected dataset comprises:

at least one or more emails, contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, pictures, music, documents, videos, bookmarks, and links.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first blade maintains transient states of the first connected dataset and the second blade maintains transient states of the second connected dataset.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second blades comprises:

a device manager for interfacing with the user devices;

a content router for routing data to the user devices; and

a database for storing configuration information of the user accounts and the user devices.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the blade manager comprises:

logic for receiving an invitation from the first user to share data with the second user;

logic for authenticating the first user and the second user;

logic for forwarding the invitation to the second user; and

logic for receiving an acceptance to share data from the second user.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the logic for authenticating comprises:

logic for verifying the first user and the second user are permitted to access the system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the pipe device comprises:

logic for acting as a proxy of the first user from the perspective of the second blade; and

logic for acting as a proxy of the second user from the perspective of the first blade.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the pipe device further comprises:

logic for identifying a shared dataset and its corresponding access restrictions from the first connected dataset;

logic for transferring the shared dataset and its corresponding access restrictions from the first blade to the second blade; and

logic for accessing the shared dataset at the second blade by the second user according to its corresponding access restrictions.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for sharing comprises:

logic for receiving modifications of the shared dataset by the first user at the first blade according to the first user'"'"'s access restrictions; and

logic for propagating changes to the shared dataset from the first blade to the second blade using the pipe device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic for sharing further comprises:

logic for receiving modifications of the shared dataset by the second user at the second blade according to the second user'"'"'s access restrictions; and

logic for propagating changes to the shared dataset from the second blade to the first blade using the pipe device

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a connected dataset comprises:

at least one or more emails, contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, pictures, music, documents, videos, bookmarks, and links.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first blade maintains transient states of the first connected dataset and the second blade maintains transient states of the second connected dataset.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second blades comprises:

a device manager for interfacing with the user devices;

a content router for routing data to the user devices; and

a database for storing configuration information of the user accounts and the user devices.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein managing the first and second blades comprises:

receiving an invitation from the first user to share data with the second user;

authenticating the first user and the second user;

forwarding the invitation to the second user; and

receiving an acceptance to share data from the second user.

16. The method of claim 5, wherein authenticating comprises:

verifying the first user and the second user are permitted to access the system.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein providing a pipe device comprises:

configuring the pipe device to act as a proxy of the first user from the perspective of the second blade; and

configuring the pipe device to act as a proxy of the second user from the perspective of the first blade.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting the first and second blades comprises:

identifying a shared dataset and its corresponding access restrictions from the first connected dataset;

transferring the shared dataset and its corresponding access restrictions from the first blade to the second blade; and

accessing the shared dataset at the second blade by the second user according to its corresponding access restrictions.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein sharing comprises:

receiving modifications of the shared dataset by the first user at the first blade according to the first user'"'"'s access restrictions; and

propagating changes to the shared dataset from the first blade to the second blade using the pipe device.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein sharing further comprises:

receiving modifications of the shared dataset by the second user at the second blade according to the second user'"'"'s access restrictions; and

propagating changes to the shared dataset from the second blade to the first blade using the pipe device.

11. A method for sharing data in a system having a plurality of blades, wherein each blade includes software components and hardware components, each blade serves a predefined group of users, and each user is associated with one or more user devices, comprising:

providing a first blade and a second blade, wherein the first blade connects a first user to a first connected dataset and the second blade connects a second user to a second connected dataset, and wherein the first blade and the second blade operate independent of each other;

managing the first and second blades by a blade manager;

providing a pipe device for connecting the first and second blades; and

sharing portions of the first connected dataset of the first user with the second user using the pipe device.

21. A computer program product for sharing data in a system having a plurality of blades, wherein each blade includes software components and hardware components, each blade serves a predefined group of users, and each user is associated with one or more user devices, the computer program product comprising a medium storing computer programs for execution by one or more computer systems having at least a processing unit, a user interface and a memory, and the computer program product comprising:

code for operating a first blade and a second blade, wherein the first blade connects a first user to a first connected dataset and the second blade connects a second user to a second connected dataset, and wherein the first blade and the second blade operate independent of each other;

code for managing the first and second blades by a blade manager;

code for connecting the first and second blades by a pipe device; and

code for sharing portions of the first connected dataset of the first user with the second user using the pipe device.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein a connected dataset comprises:

at least one or more emails, contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, pictures, music, documents, videos, bookmarks, and links.

23. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein:

the first blade maintains transient states of the first connected dataset and the second blade maintains transient states of the second connected dataset.

24. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein each of the first and second blades comprises:

a device manager for interfacing with the user devices;

a content router for routing data to the user devices; and

a database for storing configuration information of the user accounts and the user devices.

25. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the code for managing the first and second blades comprises:

code for receiving an invitation from the first user to share data with the second user;

code for authenticating the first user and the second user;

code for forwarding the invitation to the second user; and

code for receiving an acceptance to share data from the second user.

26. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the code for authenticating comprises:

code for verifying the first user and the second user are permitted to access the system.

27. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the code for connecting the first and second blades comprises:

code for configuring the pipe device to act as a proxy of the first user from the perspective of the second blade; and

code for configuring the pipe device to act as a proxy of the second user from the perspective of the first blade.

28. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the code for connecting the first and second blades further comprises:

code for identifying a shared dataset and its corresponding access restrictions from the first connected dataset;

code for transferring the shared dataset and its corresponding access restrictions from the first blade to the second blade; and

code for accessing the shared dataset at the second blade by the second user according to its corresponding access restrictions.

29. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the code for sharing comprises:

code for receiving modifications of the shared dataset by the first user at the first blade according to the first user'"'"'s access restrictions; and

code for propagating changes to the shared dataset from the first blade to the second blade using the pipe device.

30. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the code for sharing further comprises:

code for receiving modifications of the shared dataset by the second user at the second blade according to the second user'"'"'s access restrictions; and

code for propagating changes to the shared dataset from the second blade to the first blade using the pipe device.