Abstract: Systems and methods for operating a cloud based computing system. The methods comprise: receiving, by a cloud server, a request for accessing Virtual Hard Disk (“VHD”) data associated with a first location in the VHD of a Virtual Machine (“VM”) hosted by a remote computing device; extracting, by the cloud server, at least a first address specifying the first location from the request; translating, by the cloud server, the first address into a second address specifying a second location in a cloud storage where the VHD data is stored; and communicating from the cloud server the second address to the remote computing device for facilitating access to the VHD data stored in the cloud storage.

Abstract: Secure shared access to encrypted data in a data store is facilitated by using a data control server (DCS) to maintain a data storage reference table (DSRT) for shared data units present in a shared data pool hosted by least one data storage device, and accessible to a plurality of computing entities. The DSRT specifies for each shared data unit identifier information, location information for accessing the shared data unit in the shared data pool, and a hash value which has been computed for the shared data unit. The DCS selectively facilitates a decryption operation by providing hash values which serves as a basis for deriving a decryption key for decrypting shared data units which have been identified.

Abstract: Secure shared access to encrypted data in a data store is facilitated by using a data control server (DCS) to maintain a data storage reference table (DSRT) for shared data units present in a shared data pool hosted by least one data storage device, and accessible to a plurality of computing entities. The DSRT specifies for each shared data unit identifier information, location information for accessing the shared data unit in the shared data pool, and a hash value which has been computed for the shared data unit. The DCS selectively facilitates a decryption operation by providing hash values which serves as a basis for deriving a decryption key for decrypting shared data units which have been identified.

Abstract: Provisioning a virtual disk at an endpoint client, involves calculating local hash values for local blocks comprising a local operating system boot disk and creating a local hash table (LHT) containing at least the plurality of local hash values. A provisioning server communicates to the endpoint client a plurality of image hash values for image blocks comprising an image boot disk. The image hash values are compared to the local hash values contained in the LHT to identify one or more matching hash values in the LHT which are identical to one or more of the plurality of image hash values. Thereafter, one or more of the local blocks corresponding to the matching hash values are copied to the virtual disk.

Abstract: Systems and methods for operating a cloud based computing system. The methods comprise: receiving, by a cloud server, a request for accessing Virtual Hard Disk (“VHD”) data associated with a first location in the VHD of a Virtual Machine (“VM”) hosted by a remote computing device; extracting, by the cloud server, at least a first address specifying the first location from the request; translating, by the cloud server, the first address into a second address specifying a second location in a cloud storage where the VHD data is stored; and communicating from the cloud server the second address to the remote computing device for facilitating access to the VHD data stored in the cloud storage.

Abstract: A transparent high-availability solution utilizing virtualization technology is presented. A cluster environment and management thereof is implemented through an automated installation and setup procedure resulting in a cluster acting as a single system. The cluster is setup in an isolated virtual machine on each of a number of physical nodes of the system. Customer applications are run within separate application virtual machines on one physical node at a time and are run independently and unaware of their configuration as part of a high-availability cluster. Upon detection of a failure, traffic is rerouted through a redundant node and the application virtual machines are migrated from the failing node to another node using live migration techniques.

Abstract: A computer system includes a port duplex driver (PDD) that creates a “virtual SCSI adaptor,” to control the operations of one or more redundant SCSI adaptors. During boot-up operations or when the status of a device on a SCSI bus changes, the PDD identifies the virtual SCSI adaptor as the only adaptor that provides access to particular storage devices on the SCSI bus. System components then direct data transfer operations through the virtual SCSI adaptor to the storage devices. The PDD intercepts commands that are directed through the virtual SCSI adaptor, and redirects the commands to a selected one of the actual SCSI adaptors. The selected SCSI adaptor then operates in a conventional manner, to translate the generic commands from the system components to device-specific commands for the storage devices on the SCSI bus. If the selected SCSI adaptor fails, the PDD redirects the data transfer operations instead through one of the redundant SCSI adaptors.