Abstract: Load balancing technology is used to distribute tasks requested of a data storage network across the connected storage nodes within the data storage network. Conventional load balancing technology is not proactive. Storage nodes within a data storage network may have different performance characteristics and/or current loads created by various demands on the storage nodes and connected servers. The proactive load balancers and corresponding load balancer agents disclosed herein are used to detect these variations in performance characteristics and/or current loads in the storage nodes and connected servers to inform decisions made by the proactive load balancer in distributing incoming access requests across the storage nodes and connected servers.

Abstract: Heuristic based approach to authentication of requests in a stateless protocol environment. Heuristics may be applied to a request to calculate a trust level for the request. The trust level for a request may at least in part be based on request parameters for the request and one or more previously received requests in a user context profile. Thus, historical request metadata may be used in calculating a trust value of a received request. If the trust value for a request exceeds a trust threshold, the request may be authenticated without forwarding the request to an authentication server. Thus, for requests in which the trust value exceeds the trust threshold, system performance may be improved by not requiring computational overhead and/or network bandwidth to be used in authentication. In this regard, the format of the request may still comport with the stateless protocol, but authentication may be made more efficient.

Abstract: Load balancing technology is used to distribute tasks requested of a data storage network across the connected storage nodes within the data storage network. Conventional load balancing technology is not proactive. Storage nodes within a data storage network may have different performance characteristics and/or current loads created by various demands on the storage nodes and connected servers. The proactive load balancers and corresponding load balancer agents disclosed herein are used to detect these variations in performance characteristics and/or current loads in the storage nodes and connected servers to inform decisions made by the proactive load balancer in distributing incoming access requests across the storage nodes and connected servers.

Abstract: Heuristic based approach to authentication of requests in a stateless protocol environment. Heuristics may be applied to a request to calculate a trust level for the request. The trust level for a request may at least in part be based on request parameters for the request and one or more previously received requests in a user context profile. Thus, historical request metadata may be used in calculating a trust value of a received request. If the trust value for a request exceeds a trust threshold, the request may be authenticated without forwarding the request to an authentication server. Thus, for requests in which the trust value exceeds the trust threshold, system performance may be improved by not requiring computational overhead and/or network bandwidth to be used in authentication. In this regard, the format of the request may still comport with the stateless protocol, but authentication may be made more efficient.

Abstract: A method includes automatically associating a dataset with a first tag indicating that the dataset is subject to a data compliance law, automatically associating the dataset with a second tag indicating a geographic location of a source of the dataset, selecting a remote backup destination for the dataset that is compliant by comparing the first tag and the second tag to a compliance policy, and transmitting a replica of the dataset to the remote backup destination.