Hosted Storage Virtual Objects for Delegated Access Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current hosted storage systems face challenges in securely managing and accessing data objects across different storage systems while ensuring authorized access and preventing unauthorized access, especially when data is stored in delegated storage services.
Innovation Solution
A hosted storage system that utilizes virtual data objects with metadata to enable access to data stored in delegated storage services, implementing access control lists and authentication mechanisms to manage access rights and secure data, allowing clients to request and retrieve data objects while ensuring only authorized users can access the data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If data is stored in delegated storage services, then storage scalability and flexibility are improved, but access security and authorization management become more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a hosted storage service as an intermediary layer between clients and delegated storage services. This intermediary manages virtual data objects that contain metadata pointing to actual data locations, thereby simplifying access security management while maintaining storage scalability. The intermediary handles authentication and authorization requests, preventing clients from directly interacting with complex delegated storage systems.
2Ease of operation
If virtual data objects with metadata are used, then access management is simplified, but data security and authorization control may be weakened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data access into two distinct components: virtual data objects containing metadata for access management, and actual data stored in delegated storage services. This segmentation allows simplified access management through virtual objects while maintaining strong data security through separate storage and selective metadata disclosure. The virtual data objects act as proxies that control access without exposing actual data locations.
3Reliability
If access control lists are implemented, then unauthorized access is prevented, but system complexity and authentication overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The hosted storage service implements a universal authentication mechanism that handles multiple authorization scenarios through a single access control list system. The ACLs are integrated into the virtual data object metadata, providing multi-functional access control that works across different delegated storage services and client types. This universal approach reduces overall system complexity compared to implementing separate authentication mechanisms for each storage service.
Data Source
AI summary
A hosted storage service stores a virtual data object that corresponds to data. The virtual data object includes metadata that enables access to the data in a delegated storage service but does not include the data. A delegate storage service stores the data. The hosted storage service receives a request for access to the virtual object and sends a response that includes metadata to access the data in a delegated storage service. The delegate storage service receives a request for access to the data based on the metadata. In response to receiving the request for access to the data object, the delegate storage service sends the data to the client application.