System and Method for Managing User Data in a Plurality of Storage Appliances Over a Wide Area Network for Collaboration, Protection, Publication, or Sharing

A method of operating a plurality of servers, each server coupled to a corresponding database system and to a wide area network and having a central service coupled to its corresponding database system, to manage user data in a plurality of storage appliances coupled to a wide area network, the method comprising:

• operating the servers so as to:
• a. establish, via a given one of the servers, for a given registered user, a user account, a set of registered storage appliances, and a set of container designations for storage of user data;
• b. store in the database system associated with the given one of the servers a set of relationships, established by the user, among the registered storage appliances and the set of container designations;
• c. synchronize data in the database systems so that each database system replicates data in each of the other database systems;
• and
• d. repeat the processes above for all registered users so that each of the database systems stores a set of relationships, collectively established by all the users, among the registered storage appliances and the container designations;
• and
• using the central service to update storage appliance-container relationship data to the storage appliances so as to enable the storage appliances to substantiate the containers therein, and to replicate files with other devices that have substantiated corresponding containers, in a manner consistent with the stored relationships, and wherein the central services operate without interaction with user data stored in the containers.

A storage appliance comprising:

• a storage device;
• a wide area network interface;
• a storage controller, coupled to the wide area interface, that receives, over the wide area network, storage appliance-container relationship data from a server and causes sharing, with a set of other similar storage appliances, of user data in the storage device consistent with the relationship data and wherein such relationship data specifies a set of containers to be shared with the set of other storage appliances;
• wherein the storage appliance requires no local user interface for obtaining the storage appliance-container relationship data.

A storage client comprising:

• a processor;
• a storage application that runs on the processor;
• a local memory in communication with the storage application;
• and
• a storage appliance interface in communication with the storage application, wherein the storage application is configured to provide a user interface enabling a user to select, for each of a number of containers stored on the storage appliance, whether the container is accessed remotely by the storage application via the storage appliance interface or locally cached by the storage appliance.

A method for synchronizing contents of a storage container across a plurality of storage appliances, the method comprising:

• transmitting, by a first storage appliance to a second storage appliance, change history information for a shared container;
• processing the change history information by the second storage appliance to resolve any conflicts with any other change history information related to the container;
• transmitting, by the second storage appliance to the first storage appliance, a request for the first storage appliance to send any modified files for the container to the second storage appliance;
• upon receiving a modified file for the container from the first storage appliance, updating the contents of the container by the second storage appliance based on the modified file received from the first storage appliance;
• updating, by the second storage appliance, a change history associated with the container to reflect the updated contents of the container;
• and
• repeating the steps of transmitting, processing, transmitting, and updating until the first and second storage appliances have the same file data in their respective copies of the container.