Unified Permission Semantics for Heterogeneous File Storage Analytics

The patent transforms permissions data from multiple heterogeneous storage systems into a unified permission representation with standardized parameters. Each storage system's permissions are converted to a common format using mapping tables that translate system-specific permission fields into unified fields (e.g., converting Windows ACLs, Unix permissions, and S3 policies into a common permission structure), thereby reducing computational complexity while enabling cross-system analytics

The patent introduces a permissions service as an intermediary layer between multiple heterogeneous storage systems and the centralized analytics system. This service collects permissions data from various storage systems, normalizes them into a unified representation, and stores them in a centralized database. The intermediary handles the complexity of different permission formats, allowing the centralized system to perform analytics without directly managing the complexity of multiple storage systems

The patent simplifies complex permissions data by transforming it into a standardized unified permission representation. The system identifies and extracts only the essential permission attributes (read, write, execute, delete rights) and stores them in a normalized format, reducing the dimensionality of the data while preserving access control information needed for comprehensive security monitoring

The patent extracts only the critical permission information from the full permissions data of multiple storage systems. Instead of storing all permission metadata, the system extracts and stores only the essential access control attributes in the unified representation, reducing data volume and analytics complexity while maintaining sufficient information for security monitoring and analysis