Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Scott Rosemund

Brandon T Hunt

Alexander Burba

Frank R Morrison, Iii

Mark James McNulty

Michael Gallop

Nima Ganjeh

Kevin Joseph Fischer

Narayan Nevrekar

Atul Bhartia

Francisc Stugren

Sohail Baig Mohammed

Kazi Al-Rashid

Michael Guthrie

Venkat Siva Sai Krishna Khanderao

Frank R Iii Morrison

Iii Morrison Frank R

Brandon Hunt

Obligatorily-acquired digital content items are stored under service control in one or more local storage machines of a computer based on service commands provided by a centralized management service; and voluntarily-acquired digital content items are stored under user control in the one or more local storage machines of the computer based on user commands. The obligatorily-acquired digital content items are protected from user-commanded deletion. The obligatorily-acquired digital content items are deleted from the one or more local storage machines based on service commands provided by the centralized management service. However, the voluntarily-acquired digital content items are deleted from the one or more local storage machines based on user commands.

Content distribution storage management

In some examples, a computing device determines a data manipulation from a job specification. The device determines a corresponding data-processing instruction using data-source metadata, and determines and executes a corresponding query. In some examples, a device receives search keys. The device searches data-source metadata using the search keys. The device weights a first data source based on producer-consumer relationships between data sources, and ranks the first data source using the weight. In some examples, a device determines structural and content information of a data record. The device determines a data-source identifier from the structural information and stores the content information with the data-source identifier in a database. In some examples, via a user interface, a device receives a job specification and annotation data. The device stores the spec and the annotation data in a metadata repository.

Database operation using metadata of data sources

Data assets, such as streams, databases, spreadsheets, or other data sources or types, are identified and representations of the data asset are stored. The representation of a data asset includes a schema used by the data asset, a location of the data asset, and keywords or other descriptive information. The representations of each data asset are indexed, and a search interface is provided that allows users to search for relevant data assets. In addition, dependencies, or other relationship information, among the various data assets is maintained and is used to generate a graph that shows the interrelatedness of the data assets. The graph can be explored by users to select data assets, and used to alert users when a change has been made to a data asset that may affect a data asset that they have used.

Discovery of data assets using metadata

A plurality of sources storing portions of a digital content item that includes a plurality of pieces is identified. The plurality of sources includes one or more peer computers of a peer-to-peer network. For each piece of the plurality of pieces of the digital content item, that piece is acquired from a source.

Content-acquisition source selection and management

A plurality of sources storing portions of a digital content item that includes a plurality of pieces is identified. The plurality of sources includes one or more local storage machines of a computer and one or more peer computers of a peer-to-peer network. For each piece of the plurality of pieces of the digital content item, that piece is downloaded from a source. The source is selected from the plurality of sources according to one or more download metrics. The plurality of pieces is organized for installation on the computer as the digital content item.

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Scott Rosemund