Storediq, Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

Morry Belkin

Keith T Zoellner

Jeremy Kaplan

Laura Arbilla

Peter A Lee

Jeff G Bone

Bradley Might

A Paul Jimenez

Brett A Funderburg

Disclosed are systems, methods and apparatuses for managing objects (files and directories) in network file systems according to policies. Each policy may have one or more rules, each of which ties a condition to an action. Each condition can be expressed in terms of metadata harvested across file systems and stored in a metadata repository. The actions are user-programmable. Users can apply and/or enforce a policy by manipulating the metadata stored in the metadata repository. For example, suppose a policy prohibits storing MP3 files in corporate storage, a user can specify a rule that ties the condition 'no MP3 files in volumes A-Z' to an action 'delete MP3 files from volumes A-Z.' A file management application may apply a filter to the metadata repository to produce metadata records having values that meet the specified condition and take the corresponding action on managed objects associated with those metadata records.

System, method and apparatus for enterprise policy management

Embodiments of the invention provide methods and systems for defining classes of objects which entails defining and manipulating expressions. A two-tiered classification editor operates to enable a user to define and manipulate expression in real time through a browser-based user interface. The first tier comprises a group editor for enabling a user to define groups. The second tier comprises an expression editor for enabling a user to define and manipulate an expression comprising a set of groups and one or more relationships between the groups. Each group may comprise a set of conditions, each of which may be based on a possible attribute of an object. Via the expression editor, a user can drag and drop to create and modify these expressions on-the-fly. When a user is done manipulating an expression on the second tier, the user is returned to the first tier, which may present the expression as modified.

Browser-based system and method for defining and manipulating expressions

Disclosed are systems, methods and apparatuses for managing objects in an enterprise environment according to policies. According to the invention, each policy rule ties a condition that conceptually lives in a repository to an appropriate action(s). Since each condition can be expressed in terms of metadata, policies can be applied and enforced over managed objects (files and directories) by allowing users to program appropriate corresponding action(s) via manipulating metadata stored in a metadata repository, e.g., a policy could prohibit storing MP3 files in corporate storage. In one embodiment, a user can specify a policy rule that ties the condition 'no MP3 files in volumes A-Z' to an action 'delete MP3 files from volumes A-Z' via a Web-based user interface. A harvester is disclosed for harvesting metadata across file systems.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Morry Belkin