# US 11,030,170 B2 · Systems and methods for scalable delocalized information governance > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,030,170 B2 - Document ID: US11030170B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/935,231 - Filed: 2018-03-26 - Published: 2018-12-06 - Granted: 2021-06-08 - Earliest claimed: 2008-02-11 - Assignees: Nuix Pty Ltd - Applicants: Nuix Pty Ltd - Inventors: David Sitsky; Matthew Westwood Hill; Robin Power; Eddie Sheehy; Stephen Stewart - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11030170B2 ## CPC - G06F 16/22: Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures - G06F 9/505: {considering the load} - G06F 16/31: Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures - G06F 2209/5017: Task decomposition - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract The invention relates to electronic indexing, and more particularly, to the indexing, in a cloud, data held in a cloud. Systems and methods of the invention index data by accessing the data in place in the cloud and breaking a job into work items and sending the work items to multiple cloud processes that can each determine whether to index data associated with the work item or to create a new work item and have a different cloud process index the data. Each cloud process is proximal to an item that it indexes. This gives the system scale as well as an internal load-balancing. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for indexing a storage system, the method comprising: analyzing a storage system comprising a plurality of items, wherein the plurality of items includes at least one of email accounts; documents; folders; and items that are not text-searchable held in email system files or document management systems, each item stored in one of a plurality of data centers, by accessing each item within the data center where that item is stored; determining whether to index at least one of the plurality of items using a first process, wherein the first process determines whether to index an item directly, or to index the at least one of the plurality of items using a second process, each of the first and second processes being executed in a cloud computer service; indexing the at least one of the plurality of items using the first process or the second process in the cloud computer service, wherein indexing items that are not text searchable comprises performing a character recognition operation on those items to generate text and identifying character strings within the text; and collecting results from the indexing at a control system; and providing a master index comprising all of the results, thereby allowing a user to find material within the storage system by using the master index. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein accessing each item within the data center comprises using a password specific to that item. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of items includes email accounts; documents; folders; and items that are not text-searchable. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein items that are not text-searchable include PDF-formatted files and image files. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of data centers comprises a separate building housing storage computers. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein each item is stored in one of the plurality of data centers within a computer device comprising a non-transitory memory. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the control system comprises at least one control computer comprising a control processor coupled to a non-transitory memory. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of items comprises email accounts and further wherein accessing those email accounts includes use of a password for each account or an admin password to access multiple accounts. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data centers are each part of the cloud computing service. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The method of claim 9, wherein each item is indexed by process within the data center where that item is stored. ### Claim 11 A system for indexing a storage system, the system comprising: a control computer comprising a processor coupled to a non-transitory memory containing instructions causing the control computer to coordinate an indexing operation of data stored in a cloud comprising a plurality of items, each item stored in one of a plurality of data centers, wherein the plurality of items includes at least one of email accounts; documents; folders; and items that are not text-searchable held in email system files or document management systems, by: accessing each item within the data center where that item is stored; determining whether to index at least one of the plurality of items using a first process, wherein the first process determines whether to index an item directly, or to index the at least one of the plurality of items using a second process; causing the first process or the second process within that data center to index that item, wherein indexing items that are not text searchable comprises performing a character recognition operation on those items to generate text and identifying character strings within the text; collecting or compiling results from indexing the plurality of items; and providing a master index comprising all of the results, thereby allowing a user to find material within the storage system by using the master index. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The system of claim 11, wherein accessing each item within the data center comprises using a password specific to that item. ### Claim 13 (depends on 11) The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of items includes email accounts; documents; folders; and items that are not text-searchable held in email system files or document management systems. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The system of claim 13, wherein items that are not text-searchable include PDF-formatted files and image files. ### Claim 15 (depends on 11) The system of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of data centers comprises a separate building housing storage computers. ### Claim 16 (depends on 11) The system of claim 11, wherein each item is stored in one of the plurality of data centers within a computer device comprising a non-transitory memory. ### Claim 17 (depends on 11) The system of claim 11, wherein the control computer is further operable to cause each process to determine whether to index an item directly or to itself cause a second process to index the item. ### Claim 18 (depends on 11) The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of items comprises email accounts or documents in file sharing or document management systems and further wherein accessing those email accounts and documents includes use of a password for each account. ### Claim 19 (depends on 11) The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of data centers are each part of a cloud computing service. ### Claim 20 (depends on 19) The system of claim 19, wherein each process used to index the items is provided by the cloud computing service.