Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Performing An Action Within A Machine-Generated Big Data Environment”, for Approval (USPTO 20200104291)

2020 APR 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventor Villacres, John (Columbus, OH), filed on September 27, 2019, was made available online on April 2, 2020.

The patent’s assignee is Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (Columbus, Ohio, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Various aspects of the present invention relate generally to an improvement in a big-data environment, and specifically to the technological field of performing actions within a big-data environment.

“A big-data environment includes extremely large data sets that are analyzed to reveal patterns, trends, associations, etc. The data sets are sometimes consolidated into a data repository, and a big-data monitoring tool monitors the data repository. A user can set up alerts that indicate when a specific change occurs in the data sets.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “According to aspects of the present invention, a process for performing an action within a machine-generated big data environment including a repository comprises serially executing alerts within the big data environment. When an alert is triggered, an action is performed and an object with parameters for a next alert is created and stored in the data repository. The next alert triggers when the object is written to the data repository. Thus, alerts may be nested within the big data environment to simulate a program or script.

“According to aspects of the present invention, a process for performing an action within a big data environment comprises monitoring, with a first alert, a data repository of machine-generated logs for a first designated change in the machine-generated logs. Based on the first designated change in the data repository, a first search is performed within the data repository. A first object, which may include parameters to be passed to a second alert, is created and written to the data repository based on a result of the first search. The data repository is monitored with the second alert for a second designated change in the machine-generated logs, and the second designated change in the machine-generated logs corresponds to the first object. The data repository is searched a second time based on the second designated change in the machine-generated logs and possibly the parameters passed from the first alert. Based on the second search, a predetermined action is performed.

“According to further aspects of the present disclosure, process for verifying a device on a network using the process for performing an action within a big-data environment comprises: consolidating multiple system logs into a known-devices system log in a data repository and monitoring the data repository for an event that signifies a new device has accessed a network. If the event that signifies a new device has accessed a network occurs, then the known-devices system log is searched to determine if an identity of the new device is present in the known-devices system log. If the identity of the new device is not present in the known-devices system log, then a locally-not-found object (including the identity of the new device) is written to the data repository. The data repository is monitored for the locally-not-found object, and if it is added to the data repository, then the identity of the new device from the locally-not-found object is retrieved. Also, if locally-not-found object is added to the data repository, then an external script that uses an application programming interface (API) of an external application is invoked to determine if the identity of the new device is known to the external application. If the identity of the new device is not known to the external application, then an externally-not-known object is written to the data repository. The data repository is monitored for the externally-not-known object, and if it is added to the data repository, a predetermined action is performed.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A process for performing an action within a machine-generated big data environment, the process comprising: monitoring, with a first alert, a data repository of machine-generated logs for a first designated change in the machine-generated logs; performing a first search within the data repository based on the first designated change in the machine-generated logs; creating and writing a first object to the data repository based on a result of the first search; monitoring, with a second alert, the data repository of machine-generated logs for a second designated change in the machine-generated logs, wherein the second designated change in the machine-generated logs corresponds to the first object; performing a second search within the data repository based on the second designated change in the machine-generated logs; and performing a predetermined action based on the second search.

“2. The process of claim 1, wherein creating and writing a first object to the data repository comprises writing the first object including a parameter for the second search to the data repository.

“3. The process of claim 2, wherein performing a second search within the data repository comprises performing the second search using the parameter of the object written to the data repository.

“4. The process of claim 3, wherein performing a predetermined action based on the second search comprises performing the predetermined action using the parameter of the object written to the data repository.

“5. The process of claim 1, wherein creating and writing a first object to the data repository comprises creating and writing a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) object to the data repository.

“6. The process of claim 1, wherein monitoring a data repository of machine-generated logs comprises monitoring an unstructured data repository of machine-generated logs.

“7. The process of claim 1, wherein creating and writing a first object to the data repository comprises creating and writing the object to a selected subset of the machine-generated logs.

“8. The process of claim 1, wherein performing a predetermined action comprises invoking an external script.

“9. The process of claim 8, wherein invoking an external script comprises invoking the external script to make a call on an application programming interface to retrieve data from an external program.

“10. The process of claim 1 further comprising displaying the object written to the data repository based on results of the first search.

“11. The process of claim 1 further comprising: monitoring, with a third alert, the data repository of machine-generated logs for the second designated change in the machine-generated logs, wherein the second designated change in the machine-generated logs corresponds to the object written to the data repository based on the results of the first search; performing a third search within the data repository based on the second designated change in the machine-generated logs; and performing a second predetermined action based on the third search.

“12. The process of claim 1, wherein: performing a second predetermined action comprises writing a second object to the data repository based on results of the second search; and the process further comprises: monitoring, with a third alert, the data repository of machine-generated logs for a third designated change in the machine-generated logs, wherein the third designated change in the machine-generated logs corresponds to the second object written to the data repository based on the results of the second search; performing a third search within the data repository based on the third designated change in the machine-generated logs; and performing a second predetermined action based on the third search.

“13. A process for verifying a device on a network, the process comprising: consolidating multiple system logs into a known-devices system log in a data repository; monitoring the data repository for an event that signifies a new device has accessed a network; searching, if the event that signifies a new device has accessed a network occurs, the known-devices system log to determine if an identity of the new device is present in the known-devices system log; writing, if the identity of the new device is not present in the known-devices system log, a locally-not-found object to the data repository, wherein the object includes the identity of the new device; monitoring data repository for the locally-not-found object; retrieving, if the locally-not-found object is added to the data repository, the identity of the new device from the locally-not-found object; invoking, if the locally-not-found object is added to the data repository, an external script that uses an application programming interface (API) of an external application to determine if the identity of the new device is known to the external application; writing, if the identity of the new device is not known to the external application, an externally-not-known object to the data repository; monitoring the data repository for the externally-not-known object; and performing a predetermined action based on the externally-not-known object.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Villacres, John. Performing An Action Within A Machine-Generated Big Data Environment. Filed September 27, 2019 and posted April 2, 2020. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220200104291%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20200104291&RS=DN/20200104291

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