Michael Anthony Barton

US Patent:

8510267, Aug 13, 2013

Filed:

Apr 19, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/089510

Inventors:

Michael Barton - San Antonio TX, US
Will Reese - San Antonio TX, US
John A. Dickinson - Schertz TX, US
Jay B. Payne - San Antonio TX, US
Charles B. Thier - San Antonio TX, US
Gregory Holt - Hollywood Park TX, US

Assignee:

Rackspace US, Inc. - San Antonio TX

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707620, 707628

Abstract:

Several different embodiments of a massively scalable object storage system are described. The object storage system is particularly useful for storage in a cloud computing installation whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand. In several embodiments, the object storage system includes a ring implementation used to associate object storage commands with particular physical servers such that certain guarantees of consistency, availability, and performance can be met. In other embodiments, the object storage system includes a synchronization protocol used to order operations across a distributed system. In a third set of embodiments, the object storage system includes a metadata management system. In a fourth set of embodiments, the object storage system uses a structured information synchronization system. Features from each set of embodiments can be used to improve the performance and scalability of a cloud computing object storage system.

US Patent:

8538926, Sep 17, 2013

Filed:

Apr 19, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/089442

Inventors:

Michael Barton - San Antonio TX, US
Will Reese - San Antonio TX, US
John A. Dickinson - Schertz TX, US
Jay B. Payne - San Antonio TX, US
Charles B. Thier - San Antonio TX, US
Gregory Holt - Hollywood Park TX, US

Assignee:

Rackspace US, Inc. - San Antonio TX

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707652, 707694, 707698, 707825, 707959, 709220, 709251

Abstract:

Several different embodiments of a massively scalable object storage system are described. The object storage system is particularly useful for storage in a cloud computing installation whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand. In several embodiments, the object storage system includes a ring implementation used to associate object storage commands with particular physical servers such that certain guarantees of consistency, availability, and performance can be met. In other embodiments, the object storage system includes a synchronization protocol used to order operations across a distributed system. In a third set of embodiments, the object storage system includes a metadata management system. In a fourth set of embodiments, the object storage system uses a structured information synchronization system. Features from each set of embodiments can be used to improve the performance and scalability of a cloud computing object storage system.

US Patent:

8554951, Oct 8, 2013

Filed:

Apr 19, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/089476

Inventors:

Michael Barton - San Antonio TX, US
Will Reese - San Antonio TX, US
John A. Dickinson - Schertz TX, US
Jay B. Payne - San Antonio TX, US
Charles B. Thier - San Antonio TX, US
Gregory Holt - Hollywood Park TX, US

Assignee:

Rackspace US, Inc. - San Antonio TX

International Classification:

G06F 15/16

US Classification:

709248, 713400, 713503

Abstract:

Several different embodiments of a massively scalable object storage system are described. The object storage system is particularly useful for storage in a cloud computing installation whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand. In several embodiments, the object storage system includes a ring implementation used to associate object storage commands with particular physical servers such that certain guarantees of consistency, availability, and performance can be met. In other embodiments, the object storage system includes a synchronization protocol used to order operations across a distributed system. In a third set of embodiments, the object storage system includes a metadata management system. In a fourth set of embodiments, the object storage system uses a structured information synchronization system. Features from each set of embodiments can be used to improve the performance and scalability of a cloud computing object storage system.

US Patent:

20120233117, Sep 13, 2012

Filed:

Oct 21, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/278948

Inventors:

Gregory Lee Holt - Hollywood Park TX, US
Clay Gerrard - San Antonio TX, US
David Patrick Goetz - San Antonio TX, US
Michael Barton - San Antonio TX, US

Assignee:

Rackspace US, Inc. - San Antonio TX

International Classification:

G06F 7/00

US Classification:

707620, 707E1701, 707E17002

Abstract:

An improved scalable object storage system includes methods and systems allowing multiple clusters to work together. In one embodiment, there is a multi-cluster synchronization system between two or more clusters. The multi-cluster synchronization system uses variable compression to optimize the transfer of information between the clusters. Compression is used not only to minimize the total number of bytes sent between the two clusters, but to dynamically vary the size of the objects sent across the wire to optimize for higher throughput after considering packet loss, TCP windows, and block sizes. This includes both the packaging of multiple small files together into one larger compressed file, saving on TCP and header overhead, but also the chunking of large files into multiple smaller files that are less likely to have difficulties due to intermittent network congestion or errors.

US Patent:

20120233118, Sep 13, 2012

Filed:

Oct 21, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/278985

Inventors:

Gregory Lee Holt - Hollywood Park TX, US
Michael Barton - San Antonio TX, US
David Patrick Goetz - San Antonio TX, US
Clay Gerrard - San Antonio TX, US

Assignee:

Rackspace US, Inc. - San Antonio TX

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707620, 707E17007

Abstract:

An improved scalable object storage system allows multiple clusters to work together. In one embodiment, a multi-cluster synchronization system synchronizes data between two or more clusters. Each cluster has a cluster-internal network, with object storage services and container services. The container services track and replicate metadata associated with the object storage service. An intercluster network connects the two clusters and performs a one-way synchronization of the objects and metadata associated with a particular container. In a further embodiment, multiple synchronization relationships can be set up, either in a cycle (with two or more participants), in a line, or in a tree. For example, the multi-cluster replication could be used to transparently synchronize objects in a CDN network.

US Patent:

20120233134, Sep 13, 2012

Filed:

Apr 19, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/089487

Inventors:

Michael Barton - San Antonio TX, US
Will Reese - San Antonio TX, US
John A. Dickinson - Schertz TX, US
Jay B. Payne - San Antonio TX, US
Charles B. Thier - San Antonio TX, US
Gregory Holt - Hollywood Park TX, US

Assignee:

Rackspace US, Inc. - San Antonio TX

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707692, 707E17005

Abstract:

Several different embodiments of a massively scalable object storage system are described. The object storage system is particularly useful for storage in a cloud computing installation whereby shared servers provide resources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand. In several embodiments, the object storage system includes a ring implementation used to associate object storage commands with particular physical servers such that certain guarantees of consistency, availability, and performance can be met. In other embodiments, the object storage system includes a synchronization protocol used to order operations across a distributed system. In a third set of embodiments, the object storage system includes a metadata management system. In a fourth set of embodiments, the object storage system uses a structured information synchronization system. Features from each set of embodiments can be used to improve the performance and scalability of a cloud computing object storage system.

US Patent:

20120233228, Sep 13, 2012

Filed:

Dec 23, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/336095

Inventors:

Michael Barton - San Antonio TX, US
Will Reese - San Antonio TX, US
John A. Dickinson - Schertz TX, US
Jay B. Payne - San Antonio TX, US
Charles B. Thier - San Antonio TX, US
Gregory Holt - Hollywood Park TX, US

Assignee:

Rackspace US, Inc. - San Antonio TX

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707827, 707E1701

Abstract:

Several different embodiments of a segmented object storage system are described. The object storage system divides files into a number of object segments, each segment corresponding to a portion of the object, and stores each segment individually in the cloud storage system. The system also generates and stores a manifest file describing the relationship of the various segments to the original data file. Requests to retrieve the segmented file are fulfilled by consulting the manifest file and using the information from the manifest to reconstitute the original data file from the constituent segments. Modifying, appending to, or truncating the object is accomplished by manipulating individual segments and the manifest file. In further embodiments, manipulation of the individual object segments and/or the manifest is used to implement copy-on-write, snapshotting, software transactional memory, and peer-to-peer transmission of the large file.

US Patent:

20120233251, Sep 13, 2012

Filed:

Oct 21, 2011

Appl. No.:

13/278876

Inventors:

Gregory Lee Holt - Hollywood Park TX, US
Michael Barton - San Antonio TX, US
David Patrick Goetz - San Antonio TX, US
Clay Gerrard - San Antonio TX, US

Assignee:

Rackspace US, Inc. - San Antonio TX

International Classification:

G06F 15/16

US Classification:

709204

Abstract:

An improved scalable object storage system allows multiple clusters to work together. Users working with a first cluster, or with a multi-cluster gateway, can ask for services and have the request or data transparently proxied to a second cluster. This gives transparent cross-cluster replication, as well as multi-cluster compute or storage farms based upon spot availability or various provisioning policies. Vendors providing a cloud storage “frontend” can provide multiple backends simultaneously. In one embodiment, a multi-cluster gateway can have a two, three, or higher-level ring that transparently matches an incoming request with the correct cluster. In the ring, a request is first mapped to an abstract “partition” based on a consistent hash function, and then one or more constrained mappings map the partition number to an actual resource. In another embodiment, the multi-cluster gateway is a dumb gateway, and the rings are located only at the cluster level.