Patents by Inventor Nicholas Alexander Allen

Nicholas Alexander Allen has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9448827
    Abstract: Techniques for reclaiming resources from guest computing systems while those systems are waiting for responses to requests in virtualized and/or distributed computer systems are described herein. At a time after issuing a request and determining that the response will take longer than a threshold length of time, one or more computer system entities within a computer system invoke one or more computer system capabilities to at least instantiate a listener object, transfer the listener object to another system domain, suspend the guest computing system and reclaim resources from the suspended guest computing system. When the response is returned to the listener object, the guest computer system is restored and the response is forwarded to the restored guest. While the guest computing system is suspended, the reclaimed resources are made available to other computer system entities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Patent number: 9448791
    Abstract: Technologies are described herein for synchronization of source code objects and software development workflow objects. Software development workflow objects are identified that are related to source code objects to be synchronized to a development device. The identified software development workflow objects are then stored in a copy of a source control object store that also includes the source code objects to be synchronized. The copy of the source control object store may then be transmitted to the development device for offline use. Tools might also be provided on the development device for utilizing the software development workflow objects stored in the copy of the source control object store maintained by the development device. The copy of a source control object store containing modified source code objects and modified software development workflow objects might also be utilized to synchronize the changes to the objects to an appropriate object store.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Joshua William McFarlane, Matthew Roy Noble, Nicholas Alexander Allen, Andrew Thomas Troutman
  • Patent number: 9450758
    Abstract: A first request from a client using a first protocol is translated into one or more second requests by a servicer using a second protocol through a virtual request using the first protocol. A client may use parameters of the first protocol to pass virtual request components to the servicer. A format agreement between the client, servicer and/or authentication service may allow the servicer and/or authentication service to translate the virtual request components over the first protocol to one or more second requests using the second protocol. Virtual request components may prove the authenticity of the virtual request received by the servicer to an authentication service. Once satisfied the virtual request is valid, the authentication service may issue a credential to the servicer to send the one or more second requests to an independent service. Virtual requests may be included in various protocols, including credential-based protocols and certificate exchange-based protocols.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Alexander Allen, Gregory B. Roth, Elena Dykhno
  • Patent number: 9448820
    Abstract: Systems and methods are described for analyzing and verifying distributed applications. In one embodiment, an application program is executed as independently executable components. During execution, redundant portions of application program data are aggregated. A property of the application program is verified using the aggregated application program data to represent code execution paths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Publication number: 20160253204
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for configuring an overlay network are provided. In the method and apparatus, an application source comprising an executable portion is obtained. A computer system instance is caused to execute at least some of the executable portion, and a snapshot of the computer system instance after partial but incomplete execution of the executable portion is obtained such that the snapshot is usable to instantiate another computer system instance to continue execution of the executable portion from a point in execution at which the snapshot was obtained.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 11, 2016
    Publication date: September 1, 2016
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Patent number: 9430359
    Abstract: Technologies are described herein for use in identifying and resolving software issues. One or more corrective actions may be identified and taken that are based upon the similarity between an unresolved issue and one or more resolved issues and/or upon the similarity between code changes made to resolve similar previously resolved issues. A version control graph might also be utilized to determine if a change made to resolve an issue in one branch of a software component is applicable to another branch of the software component. The version control graph might also be utilized to compute the relevance of an entry in an issue tracking system for an issue at a point in time after the entry is created in the issue tracking system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Thomas Troutman, Joshua William McFarlane, Matthew Roy Noble, Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Publication number: 20160248869
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for configuring an overlay network are provided. In the method and apparatus, a first application is caused to be deployed for execution on the first computer system, with the application being member of an application group. First information is provided to the first computer system, with the first information being usable for securing communication between at least the first application and a second application deployed to a second computer system. Second information usable for establishing a routing entity for the first computer system is provided to the first computer system, with the routing entity established to route data from or to the first application.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 4, 2016
    Publication date: August 25, 2016
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Patent number: 9420053
    Abstract: The canonicalization of input messages having application specific data into a canonical message format, regardless of whether those native messages are well-formed. When a message is accessed, as long as the message is processable, the message is canonicalized. If the native message is well-formed, then a canonical message is generated that includes the application specific data in a schema understood by the application. On the other hand, if the native message is not well-formed, the canonical message is generated in a manner that the canonical message may be used to access the raw bits of the message, and that includes sufficient information for some downstream processing to determine that the message was not well-formed. That downstream processing may optionally then perform compensatory actions to regain access to the application specific data, and may potentially use information from the canonicalized message to do so.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Nicholas Alexander Allen, John Anthony Taylor
  • Patent number: 9389886
    Abstract: Systems and methods are described for analyzing and verifying distributed applications. In one embodiment, an application program is executed as independently executable components. During execution, redundant portions of application program data are aggregated. A property of the application program is verified using the aggregated application program data to represent code execution paths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Publication number: 20160188360
    Abstract: A computer system implements a hypervisor which, in turn, implements one or more computer system instances and a controller. The controller and a computer system instance share a memory. A request is processed using facilities of both the computer system instance and the controller. As part of request processing, information is passed between the computer system instance and the controller via the shared memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2016
    Publication date: June 30, 2016
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Publication number: 20160191241
    Abstract: Techniques for improving the security and availability of cryptographic key systems are described herein. A graph representation of a network of cryptographic key servers is created with vertices representing the servers and edges representing connections between pairs of servers. As cryptographic key events are received, the graph is used to locate the appropriate servers upon which to perform the operations associated with the events. In the event that the network requires repairing, the graph is first repaired obeying any constraints on the graph and then the network is updated to reflect alterations to the graph.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 8, 2016
    Publication date: June 30, 2016
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Publication number: 20160173518
    Abstract: Source information for requests submitted to a system are classified to enable differential handling of requests over a session whose source information changes over the session. For source information (e.g., an IP address) classified as fixed, stronger authentication may be required to fulfill requests when the source information changes during the session. Similarly, for source information classified as dynamic, source information may be allowed to change without requiring the stronger authentication.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 19, 2016
    Publication date: June 16, 2016
    Inventors: Gregory Branchek Roth, Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Patent number: 9363281
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for detecting covert routing is disclosed. In the method and apparatus, data addressed to an unrestricted computer system traverses a first routing path. The data may be caused to traverse a second a routing path to be received by the unrestricted computer system, whereby a response received from the unrestricted computer system may be indicative of a potential that the data traversing the first routing path was covertly routed to a restricted computer system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Patent number: 9349144
    Abstract: Shared electronic resources can be allocated to customers by auction when there is contention among the customers for the resources. Each customer can receive a bid pool for a shared electronic resource. A customer may prioritize a request by withdrawing a bid amount from the customer's bid pool and submitting the bid amount with a request for the shared resource. A resource provider may assess the capacity of the shared resource to process requests and conduct an auction at various times, such as during periods of congestion, to determine the requests that the shared resource will process at a given time. The auction can be concluded when an auction price is determined, and those requests including bids greater than or equal to the determined auction price can be selected for processing by the shared resource.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Patent number: 9348634
    Abstract: Application boot images are generated for later instantiation of computer system images. A computer system partially executes executable code of an application source. A snapshot of the computer system is taken and the snapshot is used to build a repository of application boot images that can be accessed for computer system instantiation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Patent number: 9338092
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for configuring an overlay network are provided. In the method and apparatus, a plurality of applications are deployed for execution on one or more computing systems. The plurality of applications may be part of an application group. Credentials information is provided to the one or more computing systems, whereby the credentials information is usable for securing communication between at least two applications of the plurality of applications that are executed on different computing systems. Further, configuration information that is usable for establishing a routing path for data sent by or addressed to a first application of the plurality of applications is provided to at least one computing system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Patent number: 9329922
    Abstract: Technologies are described herein for performing a defect analysis on a software component based upon collected data that describes the operational state of hardware devices in an execution environment utilized to execute the software component at different points in time. The hardware state data is collected from the hardware devices in the execution environment at different points in time and stored in a version control system. A defect analysis may then be performed for an issue identified in the software component utilizing the hardware state data stored in the version control system. Based upon the results of the defect analysis, one or more actions may be taken such as, but not limited to, rolling the hardware or software configuration of one or more of the hardware devices in the execution environment back to a previous point in time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Joshua William McFarlane, Andrew Thomas Troutman, Matthew Roy Noble, Nicholas Alexander Allen
  • Patent number: 9313191
    Abstract: A first request from a client using a first protocol is translated into one or more second requests by a servicer using a second protocol through a virtual request using the first protocol. A client may use parameters of the first protocol to pass virtual request components to the servicer. A format agreement between the client, servicer and/or authentication service may allow the servicer and/or authentication service to translate the virtual request components over the first protocol to one or more second requests using the second protocol. Virtual request components may also prove the authenticity of the virtual request received by the servicer to an authentication service. If virtual request is valid, the authentication service may issue a credential to the servicer to send the one or more second requests to an independent service. Virtual requests may be included in various protocols, including credential-based protocols and certificate exchange-based protocols.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Alexander Allen, Gregory Branchek Roth, Elena Dykhno
  • Publication number: 20160080367
    Abstract: Session-specific information stored to a cookie or other secure token can be selected and/or caused to vary over time, such that older copies will become less useful over time. Such an approach reduces the ability of entities obtaining a copy of the cookie from performing unauthorized tasks on a session. A cookie received with a request can contain a timestamp and an operation count for a session that may need to fall within an acceptable range of the current values in order for the request to be processed. A cookie returned with a response can be set to the correct value or incremented from the previous value based on various factors. The allowable bands can decrease with age of the session, and various parameter values such as a badness factor for a session can be updated continually based on the events for the session.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2015
    Publication date: March 17, 2016
    Inventors: Gregory B. Roth, Nicholas Alexander Allen, Cristian M. Ilac
  • Patent number: 9280372
    Abstract: A computer system implements a hypervisor which, in turn, implements one or more computer system instances and a controller. The controller and a computer system instance share a memory. A request is processed using facilities of both the computer system instance and the controller. As part of request processing, information is passed between the computer system instance and the controller via the shared memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Nicholas Alexander Allen