Document Management Replica System for Storage Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Document management systems face challenges in managing the proliferation of document versions, leading to increased storage requirements and difficulties in document recovery due to automated processes that can corrupt documents, often resulting in the loss of uncorrupted versions.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a document management system that utilizes replicas of documents, where modifications are made to replicas rather than original versions, allowing for cumulative changes while maintaining the original version intact, and enabling easy recovery by restoring the original version if the replica becomes corrupt.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If automated processes are used to modify documents, then productivity is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to potential corruption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a replica copy of the original document before automated processes modify it. The replica serves as the target for all automated modifications, while the original remains unchanged and intact. This copying approach allows automated processes to work on the replica without risking corruption of the original document, thus maintaining reliability while improving productivity.
2Reliability
If multiple versions of documents are retained, then reliability is improved for recovery purposes, but storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of retaining multiple full versions of documents, the patent creates a single replica copy that contains all modifications. This replica serves as the recovered version if needed, eliminating the need to store multiple complete document versions while maintaining recovery capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the document management into two distinct parts: the original document (unchanged) and the replica (containing all modifications). This segmentation allows the system to maintain recovery capability through the original while using the replica to accumulate all changes, reducing the need to store multiple complete versions.
3Productivity
If automated processes frequently update documents, then productivity is improved, but device complexity increases due to version management
Solution Approach 1:
The patent simplifies version management by directing all automated updates to a single replica copy rather than creating multiple versions. This copying approach consolidates the complexity into a single replica management process, eliminating the need for complex version tracking, comparison, and merging operations that would otherwise be required.
Data Source
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AI summary
Embodiments of document management systems that utilize replicas are disclosed. A core document management module of a document management system is configured to return a replica (if one exists) in response to a request for either a version of a document or a replica of the document. Thus, modifications that are done by a user or an automated add-in module may be performed on the replica. When a process stores the modified document it may store it as a replica. This modified replica will replace the existing replica of the version.