Cloud management server, cloud system, and program

Abstract

To provide a cloud management server, a cloud system and a program with which it is possible to lighten management burdens in use of cloud services.SOLUTION: Provided is a cloud management server for accepting set information regarding a license from a license contractor, referring to a device database, and acquiring information for identifying a storage device the proprietor of which is the license contractor or information for identifying a storage device the proprietor of which is a coproprietor associated with the license contractor. A right to updating set information is set to at least one of the license contractor and the coproprietor, the setting of the right to updating set information is referred to, upon an indication for updating set information to authenticate that it is an update indication from the license contractor or the coproprietor having the right to updating, and performing a process of updating set information.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a cloud management server, a cloud system, and a program. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, the use of cloud services has been promoted. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technology for mediating access to data on a cloud using a cloud management server that executes various control processes related to cloud computing. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2013-58101 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, in the case of cloud services, there are cases where services provided by multiple service providers are used, and in such cases, management of service contracts becomes complicated. Specifically, when backing up a device such as a NAS to an external cloud storage, the burden of setting up the device and managing the validity of the license to use the cloud storage increases. On the other hand, when the owner of the device entrusts management to an external organization, various problems arise, such as preventing data leakage on the cloud storage.

[0005] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned circumstances, and one of its objects is to provide a cloud management server, a cloud system, and a program that can reduce the management burden involved in using cloud services. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The invention described in claim 1 according to one aspect of the present invention is a cloud management server accessible to a device database that holds information identifying a storage device in association with information identifying an owner of the storage device, and a license database that holds license information of a cloud storage that is a backup destination for data in the storage device, in association with information identifying a licensee of the license, and information identifying a co-owner who will jointly use the cloud storage with the licensee, the cloud management server including: an accepting means for accepting setting information related to a license from the licensee; an acquiring means for referring to the device database and acquiring information identifying a storage device owned by the licensee, or information identifying a storage device owned by a co-owner associated with the licensee; and an updater restricting means for setting authority for the setting information to at least one of the licensee or the co-owner, and configured to, upon receiving an instruction to update the setting information, refer to the setting of the update authority for the setting information, authenticate that the update instruction is from the licensee or the co-owner who has update authority, and perform processing to update the setting information.

[0007] This allows license updates for cloud services to be managed by the subscriber or co-owner, reducing the management burden involved in using cloud services.

[0008] It is also preferable that the system further comprises a device setting means for sending the received setting information to a storage device specified by the acquired information.

[0009] This makes it easy to set licenses for storage devices, reducing the management burden involved in using cloud services.

[0010] The license database may further include a management means for managing information regarding validity for each license related to the license information held in the license database, and upon receiving an inquiry from a storage device, obtains information identifying the owner of the storage device associated with the information identifying the storage device that made the inquiry, and refers to the license database to obtain license information in which the owner of the storage device identified in the obtained information is the contractor, or license information in which the owner of the storage device identified in the obtained information is a co-owner, and determines whether the license related to the obtained license information is valid and conveys this to the contractor or co-owner.

[0011] According to this example, information regarding whether a license is valid or invalid can be provided to a storage device.

[0012] Furthermore, the cloud storage stores data in a storage device in a state in which the data in the storage device is encrypted with an encryption key determined for each storage device, and the cloud management server further has an access right setting storage means for accepting and storing access right settings for the licensee or co-owner identified by information stored in the license database, in association with license information in which the owner of the storage device is a licensee or co-owner, from an owner of the storage device, and for the licensee or co-owner identified by information stored in the license database, and upon accepting a request to access data in the cloud storage related to the information of interest from the licensee or co-owner identified by the information stored in the license database, the cloud management server may determine whether the licensee or co-owner who made the access request is the owner of a storage device corresponding to the data stored in the cloud storage related to the information of interest, and if the licensee or co-owner is not the owner of the storage device, determine whether the access requester has the access right to the data by referring to the access right setting stored in the access right setting storage means, and if the access requester has the access right, accept a decryption key from the access requester and provide the data to the access requester in a state in which the data is decrypted using the decryption key.

[0013] This allows access rights to data stored in cloud storage to be set in relation to licenses, reducing the management burden involved in using cloud services.

[0014] Another aspect of the present invention is a cloud system including a storage device and a cloud management server, the cloud management server being accessible connected to a device database that holds information identifying the storage device in association with information identifying an owner of the storage device, and a license database that holds license information of a cloud storage that is a backup destination for data in the storage device, information identifying a licensee of the license, and information identifying a co-owner who will jointly use the cloud storage with the licensee, in association with each other, and the cloud management server is provided with: an accepting means for accepting setting information related to a license from the licensee; an acquiring means for referring to the device database and acquiring information identifying a storage device owned by the licensee, or information identifying a storage device owned by a co-owner associated with the licensee; and an updater restricting means for setting authority for the setting information to at least one of the licensee or the co-owner, wherein the cloud management server receives an instruction to update the setting information, refers to a setting of the update authority for the setting information, authenticates that the update instruction is from the licensee or the co-owner who has update authority, and processes the update of the setting information.

[0015] This allows license updates for cloud services to be managed by the subscriber or co-owner, reducing the management burden involved in using cloud services.

[0016] Yet another aspect of the present invention is a program that causes a computer connected to be accessible to a device database that holds information identifying a storage device in association with information identifying an owner of the storage device, and a license database that holds license information of a cloud storage that is a backup destination for data in the storage device, in association with information identifying a licensee of the license, and information identifying a co-owner who will jointly use the cloud storage with the licensee, to function as: an accepting means for accepting setting information related to a license from the licensee; an acquiring means for referring to the device database and acquiring information identifying a storage device owned by the licensee, or information identifying a storage device owned by a co-owner associated with the licensee; and an updater restricting means for setting update authority for the setting information to at least one of the licensee or the co-owner, and, upon receiving an instruction to update the setting information, refers to the setting of the update authority for the setting information, authenticates that the update instruction is from the licensee or the co-owner who has update authority, and causes the update of the setting information to be processed.

[0017] This allows license updates for cloud services to be managed by the subscriber or co-owner, reducing the management burden involved in using cloud services. Effect of the Invention

[0018] According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the management burden involved in using cloud services. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0019] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a cloud system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of the contents of a user database used by the cloud management server according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. [Diagram 3] 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of the contents of a license database used by the cloud management server according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. [Figure 4] 4 is a functional block diagram of a control unit of the cloud management server according to the embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 5] 13 is another functional block diagram of the control unit of the cloud management server according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. [Figure 6] 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation of the cloud system according to the embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 7] 11 is a flowchart illustrating another operation example of the cloud system according to the embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 8] 11 is a flowchart illustrating yet another operation example of the cloud system according to the embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0020] An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in Fig. 1, a cloud system 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes at least a cloud service server 10, a user device 20, and a cloud management server 30, which are connected to each other via a communication means such as a network.

[0021] This cloud service server 10 is, for example, a server that provides a storage service. The storage service can be used, for example, for backing up local data. In the following description, it is assumed that this storage service is managed by an organization S that provides the cloud service.

[0022] In this embodiment, the user device 20 is a storage device such as a NAS (Network Attached Storage), and is located in an organization A such as a company that owns the device. In this embodiment, the user device 20 uses the cloud service server 10 as its backup destination. Settings for this purpose will be described later.

[0023] In one example of this embodiment, the user device 20 repeatedly accesses the cloud management server 30 at a predetermined timing (for example, at each predetermined time) to check whether there is setting information or update information addressed to the user device 20 (i.e., addressed to the user device 20 itself). If there is setting information or update information addressed to the user device 20 itself, the user device 20 acquires the setting information or update information and reflects the contents of the acquired setting information or update information in its own settings.

[0024] Here, whether or not the information held by the cloud management server 30 is addressed to itself can be determined by whether or not the information is associated with information unique to the user device 20 itself, such as the serial number of the user device 20 itself or the MAC address of the network interface equipped in the user device 20.

[0025] In this embodiment, the cloud management server 30 is installed and managed by a management company (such as a system builder) called organization B. As shown in FIG. 1, the cloud management server 30 is realized by a server computer including a control unit 31, a storage unit 32, and a communication unit 33.

[0026] Here, the control unit 31 operates according to a program stored in the storage unit 32, and accepts setting information related to the license from a user of the organization that is the licensee. The control unit 31 also refers to a device database that holds information related to user devices, and acquires, for example, information that identifies the user device 20 owned by the licensee. The control unit 31 further sets the update authority for the setting information related to the license in association with the information that identifies the organization that is the licensee.

[0027] When the control unit 31 receives an instruction to update the setting information related to the license, the control unit 31 refers to the setting of the update authority for the setting information related to the instruction, and authenticates that the update instruction is from a licensee or the like who has the update authority. If it authenticates that the update instruction is from a person who has the update authority, the control unit 31 performs a process to update the setting information of the license. The operation of the control unit 31 will be described in detail later.

[0028] The storage unit 32 includes a memory device, a disk device, etc., and holds a program executed by the control unit 31. This program may be provided by being stored in a computer-readable and non-transitory recording medium and stored in the storage unit 32, or may be distributed via a network and stored in the storage unit 32. The storage unit 32 also operates as a work memory for the control unit 31.

[0029] In one example of this embodiment, the device database in which the control unit 31 holds information about user devices and the license database in which information about licenses is registered may be stored in the storage unit 32 .

[0030] However, the device database and license database may be stored in a server device accessible via a network and separate from the cloud management server 30. In other words, it is sufficient that the device database and license database are accessible from the cloud management server 30.

[0031] The communication unit 33 is, for example, a network interface, and transmits and receives various data via the network according to instructions input from the control unit 31. The communication unit 33 also outputs to the control unit 31 data transmitted to the cloud management server 30 via the network.

[0032] [Database used by the cloud management server] In this embodiment, the databases used by cloud management server 30 include a user database 41, a license database 42, and a device database 43, as shown in FIG.

[0033] Here, in the user database 41, as shown in FIG. 2, information for identifying an organization (organization ID) is recorded in association with a user name, authentication information (password, etc.), etc.

[0034] In the license database 42, as shown in FIG. 3, for information identifying an organization (organization ID), the following setting information is recorded in association with each other: license information (L) that identifies the license of which the organization ID is the owner, information (V) that indicates whether the license is valid or invalid, and information (P) that identifies the co-owner of the license.

[0035] In one aspect of the present embodiment, the owner of the license may set a co-owner of the license. For example, in the above example, the owner of the license may not be the organization A, which is the owner of the user device 20, but may be an organization C, which is different from any of the organizations A, B, and S that are entrusted with the management of the user device 20 by the organization A, as the owner of the license. In this case, the organization C may set the organization A, which is actually going to receive a service using the license, as the co-owner of the license. In this example, the license database 42 records an organization ID that identifies the organization C in association with an organization ID that identifies the organization A, which is the co-owner of the license, as information that specifies the co-owner. Note that if a co-owner is not set, the information on the co-owner may be left blank.

[0036] The license information (L) includes information on the license related to the use of the cloud service server 10. As an example, the license information (L) includes license identification information that is uniquely set for each license in order to identify the license, information (such as a URL) that identifies the access destination for the owner or sharer of the license to receive the services of the cloud service server 10, and authentication information for access.

[0037] The device database 43 records information for identifying an organization that is the owner of the user device 20 (organization ID) in association with information for identifying the user device 20 owned by the organization. Here, the information for identifying the user device 20 is assumed to be information unique to the user device 20, such as the serial number of the user device 20 or the MAC address of a network interface provided in the user device 20.

[0038] [Functional configuration of cloud management server] Here, the operation of the control unit 31 of the cloud management server 30 of this embodiment will be described. The control unit 31 includes an information receiving unit 51, an information setting processing unit 52, an information acquiring unit 53, an authentication processing unit 54, and an update processing unit 55, as shown in FIG.

[0039] The information receiving unit 51 receives setting information related to a license from a user of an organization (licensee) that has been authenticated by, for example, referring to the user database 41. The setting information related to the license includes the license information (L) already described, information (P) for identifying a co-owner, etc. The setting information related to the license may further include information for identifying the user device 20 that uses the license.

[0040] In addition, when the information receiving unit 51 receives an instruction from a user of an authenticated organization to register a user device 20 owned by the organization, the information receiving unit 51 associates information identifying the authenticated organization with information identifying the user device 20 related to the instruction and records the information.

[0041] The information setting processing unit 52 registers license information in the license database 42 based on the information accepted by the information accepting unit 51. That is, the information setting processing unit 52 records in the license database 42 the source of the acceptance of the setting information related to the license as the licensee, in association with the organization ID of the licensee, the accepted license information (L), and the information (P) for identifying the co-owner.

[0042] When the information receiving unit 51 receives setting information relating to license information that is common to license information (L) already recorded in the license database 42 (such as license information having common license identification information), the information receiving unit 51 overwrites the already recorded information and records the organizational ID of the licensee that received the setting information in association with the received license information (L) and information (P) that identifies the co-owner.

[0043] In this embodiment, the authority to update the license setting information is set to at least one of the licensee or its co-owner. Specifically, when the information setting processing unit 52 records the license setting information in the license database (including the case where the information is overwritten), the information setting processing unit 52 may record in the license database 42 information (setting of update authority) indicating that the licensee or co-owner of the license specified by the recorded information has update authority in association with the information.

[0044] The information setting processing unit 52 may also transmit license setting information to the user device 20. In one example of the present embodiment, when the license setting information accepted by the information accepting unit 51 includes information for identifying the user device 20, the information setting processing unit 52 holds the license information (L) included in the license setting information in a state accessible from the user device 20 via a predetermined protocol (e.g., HTTP protocol, etc.) in association with the information for identifying the user device 20.

[0045] In this case, when the information setting processing unit 52 receives a request to obtain the license information (L) from the user device 20, it checks whether it holds license information (L) associated with information identifying the user device 20 that made the request, and if so, sends the held license information (L) to the user device 20 that made the request.

[0046] However, the method by which the information setting processing unit 52 provides the license information is not limited to the above method, as long as the user device 20 can store information such as the license information.

[0047] When the information acquisition unit 53 receives input of information identifying a license owner from the authentication processing unit 54 described later, it accesses the device database 43, refers to the registered information, and acquires information identifying the user device 20 owned by the licensee identified by the information input from the authentication processing unit 54, or information identifying the user device 20 owned by a co-owner associated with the licensee in the license database 42.

[0048] Specifically, the information acquisition unit 53 receives an organization ID identifying a licensee from the authentication processing unit 54, accesses the device database 43, and acquires information associated with the organization ID. The information acquisition unit 53 then checks whether information identifying the user device 20 associated with the organization ID has been acquired. If information identifying the user device 20 has been acquired, the information acquisition unit 53 outputs the acquired information to the authentication processing unit 54.

[0049] On the other hand, if the information acquiring unit 53 cannot acquire information identifying the user device 20 associated with the input organization ID, the information acquiring unit 53 accesses the license database 42 to acquire information identifying the sharer associated with the organization ID. If the information acquiring unit 53 cannot acquire information identifying the sharer associated with the organization ID, the information acquiring unit 53 notifies the authentication processing unit 54 that an error has occurred.

[0050] Furthermore, when the information acquiring unit 53 has acquired information identifying a sharer associated with the input organization ID, the information acquiring unit 53 accesses the device database 43 to acquire information associated with the acquired information (organization ID of the sharer) and outputs the information to the authentication processing unit 54. When there is a plurality of pieces of information identifying a sharer associated with the input organization ID, the information acquiring unit 53 acquires information associated with each of the pieces of information in the device database 43 and outputs the acquired information to the authentication processing unit 54.

[0051] If there is no information in the device database 43 associated with the above-mentioned sharer's organization ID (or with any of them, if there are multiple), the information acquisition unit 53 notifies the authentication processing unit 54 that an error has occurred.

[0052] When the authentication processing unit 54 receives an instruction to update the setting information via a network, for example, it authenticates the organization of the user who issued the instruction. The instruction to update the setting information includes the license information before the update (L) and the license information after the update (L').

[0053] The authentication processing unit 54 then refers to the license database 42 and reads out the setting of the update authority for the setting information of the pre-update license, which is related to the update instruction. The authentication processing unit 54 checks whether the authenticated organization is a licensee or a joint owner who has the update authority for the setting information of the license, based on the update authority setting read out here.

[0054] If the organization of the user who issued the instruction is a licensee or a co-owner who has the authority to update the setting information of the license related to the instruction, the authentication processing unit 54 outputs information about the licensee of the license related to the instruction to the information acquisition unit 53, and acquires information identifying the user device 20 that is using the license related to the instruction from the information acquisition unit 53. Then, upon acquiring the information identifying the user device 20, the authentication processing unit 54 outputs the information and the information accepted together with the update instruction to the update processing unit 55.

[0055] When the authentication processing unit 54 receives an error notification from the information acquisition unit 53, it notifies the user who issued the instruction to update the setting information of the error.

[0056] The update processing unit 55 starts the update process when it receives information identifying the user device 20 from the authentication processing unit 54, which has accepted an instruction to update the setting information, and the pre-update license information (L) and the updated license information (L') that were accepted along with the update instruction.

[0057] When the update processing unit 55 starts the update processing, it instructs the user device 20 identified by the information acquired by the authentication processing unit 54 to update the license.

[0058] Here, the instruction to update the license for the user device 20 may be performed by retaining updated license information (L), which is information required for updating the license and accepted as an instruction to update, in a state accessible from the user device 20 in association with information identifying the user device 20. In this case, when the update processing unit 55 receives a request to acquire the updated license information from the user device 20, it checks whether or not it retains license information associated with information identifying the user device 20 that made the acquisition request, and if so, transmits the retained license information to the user device 20 that made the acquisition request.

[0059] In this example, if the information addressed to the user device 20 obtained from the cloud management server 30 is (updated) license information, the user device 20 overwrites the currently set license information, stores the updated license information, and updates the license information. If the user device 20 succeeds in updating the license information, it sends information to that effect to the cloud management server 30, and if the user device 20 fails to update the license information, it sends information to that effect to the cloud management server 30.

[0060] When the update processing unit 55 of the cloud management server 30 receives information on the result of the license information update (success or failure) from the user device 20 that instructed the license update, it notifies the user who instructed the update (i.e., the source of the update request) of the information on the result of the license update.

[0061] Furthermore, at this time, if the result of the update of the license information received from the user device 20 is information indicating that the update of the license information was successful, the update processing unit 55 searches the license database 42 for information associated with the corresponding pre-update license information (L), and replaces the pre-update license information (L) in the searched information with the updated license information (L'), thereby updating the contents of the license database 42.

[0062] [Check whether license information is valid or invalid] Furthermore, the control unit 31 of the cloud management server 30 of this embodiment repeatedly refers to the license information (L) stored in the license database 42 at predetermined intervals and checks whether the license specified by the license information is valid or not by, for example, accessing the server of the organization that provides the cloud management service corresponding to the license information. The control unit 31 records the checked whether the license is valid or invalid in the license database 42 in association with the corresponding license information, and updates the license database 42.

[0063] The control unit 31 also accepts an inquiry (license inquiry) to confirm whether a specific license is valid or not from an external source, for example, the user device 20. The control unit 31 then reads information indicating whether the license is valid or invalid, associated with the license that is the subject of the accepted inquiry (which may be identified by license identification information included in the license information), from the license database 42, and notifies the user device 20 that issued the inquiry of the read information.

[0064] Here, the control unit 31 may obtain information identifying the user device 20 from the user device 20 that made the inquiry, and refer to the device database 43 to determine whether the owner of the user device 20 associated with the obtained information is the owner or co-owner of the inquired license. Then, only when the owner of the user device 20 that made the inquiry is the owner or co-owner of the inquired license, the control unit 31 may notify the inquirer of information indicating whether the license that was the subject of the accepted inquiry is valid or invalid.

[0065] [Data provision permission setting] Furthermore, it is also preferable that the control unit 31 of this embodiment also has the following functional configuration: That is, as in this example, when the user device 20 is a storage device and files and the like stored therein are set to be backed up to the cloud service server 10, if the owner or joint owner of the license related to the cloud service server 10 is different from the owner of the user device 20, the backed up data will be provided to a person other than the owner of the user device 20, which is not preferable.

[0066] Therefore, the control unit 31 according to one example of this embodiment functionally includes an access right setting holding unit 61, an access request receiving unit 62, a determining unit 63, and a providing unit 64, as exemplified in FIG.

[0067] Here, the access right setting holding unit 61 accepts an access right setting from the owner of a storage device, which is the user device 20. The access right setting holding unit 61 then finds license information in which the owner of the user device 20 is a license contractor or a co-owner from the license database 42. The access right setting holding unit 61 holds the accepted access right setting in association with license specification information included in the found license information. This access right setting includes information indicating whether the license contractor or co-owner specified by the found license information is permitted to read data in the cloud storage, which is the cloud service server 10, related to the license information.

[0068] Specifically, the access rights settings retained here are records of information (organization ID) that identifies a person who has access rights (such as read permission) to data in the cloud service server 10 related to the license identified by the associated license information, and may be stored in the memory unit 32 of the cloud management server 30, or may be recorded in association with the corresponding license information in the license database 42.

[0069] The access request receiving unit 62 receives a request to access data stored in the cloud service server 10. This access request includes license specific information for the cloud service server 10, the URL of the cloud service server 10 to be accessed, and the like.

[0070] The judgment unit 63 judges whether or not the contractor or a joint owner of the license identified by the license identification information accepted by the access request acceptance unit 62 is the owner of the user device 20 corresponding to the data related to the access request.

[0071] Specifically, the determination unit 63 acquires the organization ID of the requester of the access request accepted by the access request acceptance unit 62 through authentication processing or the like. Then, the acquired organization ID is searched for in the device database 43. If the acquired organization ID cannot be found in the device database 43, the determination unit 63 determines that the requester is not the owner of the user device 20 corresponding to the data related to the access request, and executes the next process of confirming the access right (access right confirmation process).

[0072] In this access right confirmation process, the determination unit 63 refers to the access right setting stored by the access right setting storage unit 61 in association with the license specific information included in the access request, and determines whether the access requester has the access right to the requested data. If the determination unit 63 determines that the access requester does not have the access right, it notifies the access requester accordingly. If the determination unit 63 determines that the access requester has the access right, it outputs an instruction to provide the data to the provision unit 64.

[0073] Furthermore, when the determination unit 63 finds the acquired organization ID from the device database 43, it acquires information for identifying the user device 20 stored in the device database 43 in association with the organization ID. The determination unit 63 further determines whether the URL targeted by the access request accepted by the access request acceptance unit 62 is a storage service that stores data held by the user device 20 identified by the acquired information (whether the URL is a storage service that holds data backed up by the user device 20 identified by the acquired information). Note that, when there are multiple user devices 20 identified by the acquired information, it is sufficient to determine whether the URL is a storage service that holds data backed up by any of the user devices 20.

[0074] If the judgment unit 63 determines that the URL that is the subject of the access request accepted by the access request accepting unit 62 is not the backup destination of the data held by the user device 20 identified by the acquired information, it executes the above-mentioned access right confirmation process.

[0075] Furthermore, if the URL that is the subject of the access request accepted by the access request accepting unit 62 is a backup destination for data held by the user device 20 identified by the acquired information, the judgment unit 63 outputs an instruction to provide the data to the providing unit 64.

[0076] When the providing unit 64 accepts an instruction to provide data from the judgment unit 63, it obtains from the cloud service server 10 a list (directory) of data stored in the URL that is the target of the access request accepted by the access request accepting unit 62, or the data itself, and executes a process (provision process) of providing the data to the requestor.

[0077] In one example of the present embodiment, the directory and data in the cloud service server 10 may be encrypted so as to be decryptable by a passphrase (decryption key) preset for the corresponding user device 20 or for each piece of license information. This encryption is performed, for example, by using an encryption key corresponding to the passphrase. The encryption process may be performed in the user device 20 or as a service of the cloud service server 10.

[0078] Here, the passphrase may be, for example, designated by the user who owns the user device 20, and the encryption key may be generated based on the designated passphrase. Note that the encryption key and the passphrase may be different from each other, and an encryption process may be used that makes it difficult to obtain the encryption key from the passphrase, so that the encryption key corresponding to the passphrase designated by the user may be transmitted from the user device 20 to the cloud service server 10.

[0079] In this case, when the providing unit 64 receives an instruction to provide data from the determining unit 63, the providing unit 64 requests information for identifying a passphrase (which may be the passphrase itself or information required to acquire the passphrase) from the requester of the access request accepted by the access request accepting unit 62. When the requester inputs the information for identifying the passphrase in response to this request, the providing unit 64 acquires the directory and data that are the subject of the access request from the cloud service server 10.

[0080] The providing unit 64 then attempts to decrypt the acquired directory and data using a passphrase specified by the information input by the providing source. If the providing unit 64 is able to decrypt the data as a result, it transmits the decrypted directory and data to the requesting source and provides them to the requesting source. If the providing unit 64 is unable to decrypt the directory and data as a result of attempting to decrypt the directory and data, it sends information to that effect to the requesting source.

[0081] Note that, although decryption is performed in the providing unit 64 here, the present embodiment is not limited to this, and the providing unit 64 may transmit and provide the encrypted directory and data to the requestor without requesting the requestor to input information identifying the passphrase.

[0082] In addition, if the directory or data that is the subject of the access request accepted by the access request accepting unit 62 is selected from a directory (a list of data or other directories) provided by the providing unit 64, the judgment unit 63 may cause the providing unit 64 to perform the provision process for the subject of the access request without rechecking the access rights or requesting the passphrase again.

[0083] [Operation] The cloud management server 30 of this embodiment includes the above configuration and operates in the cloud system as follows. In the following example, it is assumed that organization A commissions organization C to manage information devices, and organization C installs user device 20, which is a storage device, in organization A. In other words, organization A is the owner of user device 20.

[0084] This user device 20 functions as a NAS, and upon receiving an instruction to store data from a personal computer or the like of a user belonging to organization A connected via a local area network (LAN) within organization A, records the data related to the instruction. Also, upon receiving an instruction to read data from the user, it reads the specified data and outputs it to the user's personal computer or the like.

[0085] Furthermore, organization C, instead of organization A, makes a contract (license contract) with organization S to use the cloud service server 10 as a backup storage for the user device 20. In other words, organization C becomes the license owner here.

[0086] Furthermore, organization C registers license information in cloud management server 30. It is assumed that organizations A and C have been registered in advance as users in cloud management server 30. In other words, it is assumed that the organization IDs and user names of both organizations A and C, as well as authentication information such as passwords, are registered in user database 41.

[0087] A user of organization C operates a personal computer or the like to access the cloud management server 30 via a network, and inputs license information (L) related to a new license and information identifying organization A as the sharer (P). Here, the license information (L) includes information (such as a URL) identifying the access destination for receiving a service on the cloud service server 10, authentication information for accessing the service, and information identifying the user device 20 installed in organization A.

[0088] Based on the received information, the cloud management server 30 associates the organization ID of organization B, which is the license contract holder, with the organization ID of organization A, which is the received license information (L) and information identifying the sharer (P), and records them in the license database 42.

[0089] In this example, the cloud management server 30 associates with the licensee (organization C) and the co-owner (organization A) of the license identified by the recorded information information that they have update authority (update authority setting) and records this information in the license database 42.

[0090] In addition, a user of organization C inputs information identifying the installed user device 20 and the organization ID of organization A, which will be the owner of the device, and issues an instruction to the cloud management server 30 to register the user device 20 owned by organization A.

[0091] In accordance with this instruction, the cloud management server 30 records in the device database 43 the organization ID of organization A and information for identifying the user device 20 in association with each other.

[0092] Furthermore, the cloud management server 30 sends the license setting information recorded here to the user device 20 specified by the information entered by the user of organization C. Specifically, it is assumed here that the user device 20 repeatedly accesses the cloud management server 30 at predetermined intervals to check whether there is setting information or updated information addressed to itself.

[0093] In this example, the cloud management server 30 operates as a web server, associates the license information (L) included in the license setting information with information identifying the user device 20, and holds the license information (L) in a state accessible from the user device 20.

[0094] When the user device 20 installed in organization A subsequently accesses the cloud management server 30, it finds the license information addressed to itself and acquires the license information. The user device 20 then reflects the contents of the acquired license information in its own settings. As a result, the user device 20 stores the URL, authentication information, etc. of the cloud service server 10 that is the data backup destination.

[0095] Thereafter, the user device 20 starts backup processing at each predetermined backup timing. In this backup processing, as illustrated in Fig. 6, the user device 20 inquires of the cloud management server 30 about whether a license specified by the set license information is valid or invalid (S11).

[0096] The cloud management server 30 obtains valid / invalid information stored in the license database 42 in association with the license information related to the inquiry (S12), checks whether the license is valid (S13), and if it is valid, sends information that the license is valid to the user device 20 that made the inquiry (S14).

[0097] The user device 20 judges whether or not it has received information indicating that the license is valid (S15), and if it is valid, it uses the stored license information to send the data it holds to the cloud service server 10 and executes backup processing (S16).If it is not valid, it notifies an error.

[0098] The cloud service server 10 authenticates the user device 20 using the authentication information of the corresponding license information, and if the authentication is successful, stores the data sent by the user device 20 in a storage area provided corresponding to the license specified by the license information (S17: data storage process). Note that at this time, the cloud service server 10 may encrypt the stored data so that it can be decrypted using a passphrase previously agreed upon with the owner of the corresponding license.

[0099] In addition, the user of organization A, who is the owner of the user device 20, sets the access rights in advance. As a specific example, it is assumed here that the user of organization A sets in the cloud management server 30 whether to permit the user of organization C, which is outsourced with the management of information devices, to read data.

[0100] When the cloud management server 30 accepts this access right setting, it searches the license database 42 for license information in which organization A, the owner of the user device 20, is the license contractor or joint owner.

[0101] In this example, a license is found in which organization C is the licensee and organization A is the co-owner, so the cloud management server 30 reads out the license information related to the found license and records in its memory unit 32, in association with the read license information, an access right setting that permits users of organization C to read data.

[0102] For example, when restoring data from a backup, a user of organization C makes an access request to the cloud management server 30 for the data of organization A stored in the cloud service server 10 (S21), as illustrated in Fig. 7. In this access request, license information including the URL of the storage destination is specified.

[0103] The cloud management server 30 determines whether the organization C that made the access request is the owner of the user device 20 that corresponds to the data related to the access request (S22). Since the organization ID of organization C cannot be found in the device database 43, the cloud management server 30 determines that organization C is not the owner of the user device 20 that corresponds to the data related to the access request.

[0104] In this case, the cloud management server 30 starts an access right confirmation process (S23) and reads the access right settings associated with the license information related to the access request from the storage unit 32. Here, the access right settings previously accepted from the user of organization A (settings permitting the user of organization C to read data) are read.

[0105] If the access right is not stored in the memory unit 32, or if it is stored but it is determined that the access right does not exist, the cloud management server 30 responds to the access requester that access is restricted (S24).

[0106] In this example of the present embodiment, cloud management server 30 determines that organization C, the source of the access request, has the access right based on the read access right settings. In the example of Fig. 7, operations that are not executed in this example are indicated by dashed lines.

[0107] Cloud management server 30, having determined that organization C, which has made the access request, has the right to access, requests a passphrase from the user of organization C (S25). When the user of organization C responds to this request and enters the passphrase (S26), cloud management server 30 obtains the data (encrypted data) that is the subject of the access request from cloud service server 10 (S27).

[0108] Cloud management server 30 attempts to decrypt the data acquired from cloud service server 10 using the passphrase entered by the user of organization C in step S26 (S28). If cloud management server 30 is able to decrypt the data, it sends the decrypted data to the user of organization C (S29).

[0109] According to this example, a user of organization C can access the backup data of the user device 20 of organization A and obtain the data for restoration, etc. On the other hand, if a user of organization A does not set an access right to read from organization C, the user of organization C cannot access the backup data of the user device 20 of organization A.

[0110] Thereafter, organization C manages the expiration date of the license contracted for organization A, and when the expiration date approaches, it renews the license with organization S. Organization C obtains the updated license information (L') as a result of this renewal.

[0111] In order to update a license, as illustrated in Fig. 8, a user of organization C accesses the cloud management server 30, inputs the current (pre-update) license information (L) and the updated license information (L'), and issues an instruction to update the license (S31). The cloud management server 30 refers to the license database 42 and reads out the setting of update authority for the setting information related to the update instruction. In this example, the update authority is given to the owner or joint owner of the license, and since the owner of the license associated with the pre-update license information (L) in the license database 42 is organization C, the cloud management server 30 determines that organization C has the authority to update the license related to the license information (L).

[0112] Therefore, the cloud management server 30 acquires information for identifying the user device 20 that is using the license (S32). For example, if information for identifying the user device 20 in association with the license information (L) is recorded in the license database 42, the cloud management server 30 may use the information. Alternatively, the cloud management server 30 may refer to the license database 42 to acquire information for identifying the owner or a co-owner of the license related to the license information (L), and may further refer to the device database 43 to acquire information for identifying the user device 20 owned by the owner or co-owner of the license identified by the acquired information.

[0113] The cloud management server 30 sends the updated license information (L') to the user device 20 identified by the acquired information (S33). As already mentioned, this license information may be recorded in association with information identifying the user device 20, and sent upon receiving a request from the user device 20.

[0114] The user device 20 acquires the updated license information (L') from the cloud management server 30, and updates the license information by reflecting the contents of the acquired license information in its own settings (S34). If the user device 20 has succeeded in updating the license information, it sends information to that effect to the cloud management server 30 (S35).

[0115] The cloud management server 30 accepts the result of the license information update in the user device 20, and notifies the result to the user of organization C who instructed the update in step S31 (S36).

[0116] Furthermore, if the result of updating the license information in the user device 20 indicates that the update was successful (S37), the cloud management server 30 searches the license database 42 for information associated with the corresponding pre-update license information (L), and replaces the pre-update license information (L) in the searched information with the updated license information (L'), thereby updating the contents of the license database 42 (S38).

[0117] If the result of updating the license information on the user device 20 does not indicate that the update was successful, the user of organization C who instructed the update in step S31 is notified of this (step S36), and the contents of the license database 42 are not updated.

[0118] According to this embodiment, for example, a user of organization A can entrust the management of licenses for a cloud service to organization C. Furthermore, when organization A backs up data to the cloud service related to the license, it is possible to set whether or not to grant access rights to the data to organization C, so that it is possible to deal with data leaks while entrusting the management of the license, and the management burden in using the cloud service can be reduced. [Explanation of symbols]

[0119] 10 cloud service server, 20 user device, 30 cloud management server, 31 control unit, 32 memory unit, 33 communication unit, 41 user database, 42 license database, 43 device database, 51 information receiving unit, 52 information setting processing unit, 53 information acquisition unit, 54 authentication processing unit, 55 update processing unit, 61 access right setting retention unit, 62 access request receiving unit, 63 judgment unit, 64 provision unit.

Claims

1. A cloud management server connected to be accessible to a device database that holds information identifying a storage device in association with information identifying an owner of the storage device, and a license database that holds license information of a cloud storage that is a backup destination of data in the storage device, information identifying a licensee of the license, and information identifying a co-owner who jointly uses the cloud storage with the licensee, a receiving means for receiving setting information regarding a license from the licensee or the joint owner; an acquisition means for referencing the device database and acquiring information identifying a storage device owned by the licensee or information identifying a storage device owned by a co-owner associated with the licensee; a means for recording setting information about the license in a license database, the means for recording information indicating that the licensee and the joint owner specified by the recorded information have update authority in association with each other, and setting the update authority; Including, The cloud management server receives an instruction to update the setting information related to the license, refers to the setting of the update authority for the setting information, authenticates that the update instruction is from the license contract holder or the sharer who has the update authority, and processes the update of the setting information.

2. 2. The cloud management server according to claim 1, The cloud management server further includes a means for, in the process of updating the setting information, sending updated setting information regarding the license to the storage device identified by the information acquired by the acquisition means, thereby updating the setting information regarding the license in the storage device.

3. A cloud management server according to claim 1 or 2, The license information for the cloud storage held in the license database includes settings for access rights to data backed up in the cloud storage, and is read and used by a cloud management server when there is a request to access data backed up in the cloud storage.

4. A cloud system including a storage device and a cloud management server, the cloud management server is connected to and accessible from a device database that holds information identifying the storage device in association with information identifying an owner of the storage device, and a license database that holds license information of a cloud storage that is a backup destination of data in the storage device, information identifying a licensee of the license, and information identifying a co-owner who jointly uses the cloud storage with the licensee, in association with each other; a receiving means for receiving setting information regarding a license from the licensee or the joint owner; an acquisition means for referencing the device database and acquiring information identifying a storage device owned by the licensee or information identifying a storage device owned by a co-owner associated with the licensee; a means for recording setting information about the license in a license database, the means for recording information indicating that the licensee and the joint owner specified by the recorded information have update authority in association with each other, and setting the update authority; Including, receiving an instruction to update the setting information related to the license, referring to a setting of an authority to update the setting information, authenticating that the instruction to update is from the licensee or the joint owner who has the authority to update, updating the setting information, and transmitting the updated setting information related to the license to a storage device specified by the information acquired by the acquisition means; A cloud system in which the storage device acquires setting information related to the updated license and updates the license information.

5. a computer connected to be accessible to a device database that holds information identifying a storage device in association with information identifying an owner of the storage device, and a license database that holds license information of a cloud storage that is a backup destination for data in the storage device, information identifying a licensee of the license, and information identifying a co-owner who shares the cloud storage with the licensee, in association with each other; a receiving means for receiving setting information regarding a license from the licensee; an acquisition means for referencing the device database and acquiring information identifying a storage device owned by the licensee or information identifying a storage device owned by a co-owner associated with the licensee; a means for recording setting information about the license in a license database, the means for recording information indicating that the licensee and the joint owner specified by the recorded information have update authority in association with each other, and setting the update authority; Function as a receiving an instruction to update the setting information related to the license, referencing the setting of the update authority for the setting information, and authenticating that the update instruction is from the licensee or the joint owner who has the update authority; and a program for causing the setting information to be updated.

Images