Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Amendment
This Office action has been issued in response to amendment filed on 03/09/2026
Claims 1-20 pending. Applicants' arguments have been carefully and respectfully considered and addressed. Accordingly, this action has been made FINAL necessitated by amendment.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments regarding the amended claims were fully considered and are moot in view of the new ground of rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-11, 13-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Shirota et al (hereinafter Shirota) US Publication No 20170228012 in view of Maybee et al (hereinafter Maybee) US Publication No 20180198765.
As per claim 1, Shirota teaches:
A non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions that when executed by one or more processors, cause a system including the one or more processors to perform operations including:
receiving a object;
(Abstract and paragraphs [0046], wherein the data is the object as cited in paragraph [0057] of the instant specification)
staging the cloud storage object in a first cache device of a plurality of cache devices, wherein the first cache device is classified within a first stage of cache devices, and a second cache device is classified within a second stage of cache devices;
(Abstract and paragraphs [0049]-[0052] and [0059], wherein the plurality of memories are classified under different categories)
and restaging the cloud storage object from the first cache to the second cache device,
(abstract and paragraphs [0049]-[0052], [0059], [0061], [0065]. [0085], [0090])
wherein restaging the cloud storage object comprises:
determining a transition criteria for restaging the cloud storage object, wherein the transition criteria is based at least in part on one or both of (i) a recency threshold that is a first dynamic threshold adjusted as a function of a plurality of recency attributes defined for a plurality of other cloud storage objects stored within the second stage of cache devices, and (ii) a frequency threshold that is a second dynamic threshold adjusted as a function of a plurality of frequency attributes defined for the plurality of other cloud storage objects stored within the second stage of cache devices,
(abstract and paragraphs [0049]-[0052], [0059], [0061], [0065]. [0085], [0090] and [0146], wherein secondary memory device is selected in order to reduce occurrence frequency of swapping and ensuring speed performance in order to reduce the swapping overhead and wherein memory is set/selected as swap based on performance threshold and wherein the occurrence frequency of swapping depends on memory access frequency)
Shirota does not explicitly teach and restaging the cloud storage object from the first cache device of the plurality of cache devices to a second cache device of the plurality of cache devices, however in analogous art of content management, Maybee teaches:
receiving a cloud storage object from a cloud object store;
(Paragraphs [0093])
And based at least in part on the cloud storage object satisfying one or both the recency threshold and the frequency threshold of the transition criteria, restaging the cloud storage object from the first cache device of the plurality of cache devices to the second cache device of the plurality of cache devices
(Paragraphs [0160] and [0174]-[0175])
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person in the ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filling of the invention to combine Shirota and Maybee by incorporating the teaching of Maybee into the method of Shirota. One having ordinary skill in the art would have found it motivated to use the content management of Maybee into the system of Shirota for the purpose of managing data eviction and improving data access.
As per claim 2, Shirota and Maybee teach:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein a first frequency attribute of the plurality of frequency attributes is indicative of a number of accesses of a first other cloud storage object of the plurality of other cloud storage objects.
(Paragraphs [0160] and [0174]-[0175])(Maybee)
As per claim 3, Shirota and Maybee teach:
wherein determining the transition criteria comprises:
determining the transition criteria, based at least in part on comparing (i) an updated frequency attribute of the cloud storage object, while the cloud storage object is stored in the first cache device and (ii) the frequency threshold.
(Paragraphs [0160] and [0174]-[0175])(Maybee)
As per claim 4, Shirota and Maybee teach:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein determining the transition criteria comprises:
determining the transition criteria such that the transition criteria indicate a transition of the cloud storage object, based at least in part on the updated frequency attribute of the cloud storage object being higher than the frequency threshold.
(Paragraphs [0160] and [0174]-[0175])(Maybee)
As per claim 5, Shirota and Maybee teach:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein:
and the frequency threshold is a function is based at least in part on the plurality of frequency attributes defined for the plurality of other cloud storage objects.
(abstract and paragraphs [0049]-[0052], [0059], [0061], [0065]. [0085], [0090])( Shirota)
As per claim 6, Shirota and Maybee teach:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the frequency threshold is a lowest frequency attribute of the plurality of frequency attributes defined for the plurality of other cloud storage objects.
(paragraph [0173], wherein the least frequently used (LFU) is the lower frequency) ( Maybee)
As per claim 7, Shirota and Maybee teach:
the second stage of cache devices are configured to store first one or more cloud storage objects that are accessed with a higher frequency;
(paragraphs [0159] and [0173])( Maybee)
and the first stage of cache devices are configured to store second one or more cloud storage objects that are accessed with a lower frequency.
(paragraphs [0159] and [0173])( Maybee)
As per claim 8, Shirota and Maybee teach:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein a first performance-capability characteristics of the first stage of cache devices is different from a second performance-capability characteristics of the second stage of cache devices.
(Abstract and paragraphs [0049]-[0052] and [0059])( Shirota)
As per claim 9, Shirota and Maybee teach:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein a first recency attribute of the plurality of recency attributes is indicative of a last access time of a first other cloud storage object of the plurality of other cloud storage objects.
(abstract and paragraphs [0049]-[0052], [0059], [0061], [0065]. [0085], [0090] and [0146])(Shirota ) and (Paragraphs [0160] and [0174]-[0175])(Maybee)
As per claim 10, Shirota and Maybee teach:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein:
and the recency threshold is a function of a lowest value of the plurality of recency attributes defined for the plurality of other cloud storage objects.
(abstract and paragraphs [0049]-[0052], [0059], [0061], [0065]. [0085], [0090] and [0146])(Shirota )
As per claim 11, Shirota and Maybee teach:
wherein determining the transition criteria further comprising: determining the transition criteria, based at least in part on comparing (i) an updated recency attribute of the cloud storage object, while the cloud storage object is stored in the first cache device and (ii) the recency threshold.
Paragraphs [0160] and [0174]-[0175])(Maybee)
Claims 13-17 are method claims respectively corresponding to non-transitory computer-readable claims 1-3, 9-10 and 15 and they are rejected under the same rational as claims 1-3, 9-10 and 15.
Claims 18-19 and 20 are system claims respectively corresponding to non-transitory computer-readable claims 1-2 and 9 and they are rejected under the same rational as claims 1-2 and 9.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Shirota and Maybee in view of Wang et al (hereinafter Wang) US Patent No 9588977.
As per claim 12, Shirota and Maybee do not explicitly teach determining that none of the plurality of cache devices local to a block storage system includes at least one data object corresponding to the I/O operation; generating an object interface request based at least in part on the I/O request; transmitting the object interface request to the cloud object store, however in analogous art of content management, Wang teaches:
receiving a request to perform a transaction with respect to a file;
(Column 13, lines 27-67 and column 14, lines 1-6)
translating the request into an I/O request to perform an I/O operation;
(Column 2, lines 27-51 and column 12, lines 35-54 and lines 55-67 and Column 13, lines 1-67 and column 14, lines 1-6)
determining that none of the plurality of cache devices local to a block storage system includes at least one data object corresponding to the I/O operation;
(Column 2, lines 27-51 and column 12, lines 35-54 and lines 55-67 and Column 13, lines 1-67 and column 14, lines 1-6, determining if the request can be done locally)
generating an object interface request based at least in part on the I/O request;
(Column 2, lines 27-51 and column 12, lines 35-54 and lines 55-67 and Column 13, lines 1-67 and column 14, lines 1-6)
transmitting the object interface request to the cloud object store, wherein the object interface request corresponds to a read operation with respect to an instance of the at least one data object stored in the cloud object store;
(Column 2, lines 27-51 and column 12, lines 35-54 and lines 55-67 and Column 13, lines 1-67 and column 14, lines 1-6, wherein the request is transferred to cloud device when the stub is present)
receiving the cloud storage object from the cloud object store, wherein the at least one cloud storage object corresponds to the instance of the at least one data object.
(Column 2, lines 27-51 and column 12, lines 35-54 and lines 55-67 and Column 13, lines 1-67 and column 14, lines 1-6)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person in the ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filling of the invention to combine Shirota and Maybee and Wang by incorporating the teaching of Wang into the method of Shirota and Maybee. One having ordinary skill in the art would have found it motivated to use the content management of Wang into the system of Shirota and Maybee for the purpose of leveraging stub to manage the I/O operation and improving I/O request performance.
Conclusion
As necessitated by amendment, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of
the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Tarek Chbouki whose telephone number is 571-2703154. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 9 am to 6:00 pm EST. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Aleksandr Kerzhner can be reached at 571-2701760. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TAREK CHBOUKI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2165
4/10/2026