Data storage for file updates

A storage system for managing a first file, the storage system comprising:

• at least one computing device and memory;
• a blob storage, on a first computing device, configured to store data related to the first file temporarily and independently of an underlying file format of the data, the blob storage being configured to store a plurality of data entries from a plurality of computing devices, the blob storage storing at least one of the data entries as an arbitrary length binary string, the arbitrary length binary string being different than the underlying file format of the at least one of the data entries;
• a cold storage, on the first computing device, in which the first file is stored;
• a handler, on the first computing device, communicatively coupled to a plurality of applications, the handler being configured to store in the blob storage any data received from any of the applications and related to the first file, the handler being configured to store the data in the blob storage until a commit instruction is received, the handler also being configured to coalesce and process at least a portion of the data from the blob storage in response to receipt of the commit instruction, the coalescing and processing of the at least a portion of the data from the blob storage comprising integrating the at least a portion of the data from the blob storage with data obtained from the cold storage, the handler also being configured to retrieve any portion of the data from the blob storage and to send the portion of the data to a first one of the applications when the first application requests access to the portion of the data, wherein the handler is configured to coalesce and process at least the portion of the data from the blob storage by selecting an appropriate storage API from the plurality of storage APIs based on a file format of the first file, and
• a file format metadata storage containing file format metadata associated with the first file, the file format metadata indicating a file structure of the first file to enable incremental access to the first file.

A computer readable storage memory encoding instructions for implementing a computer method of updating a master copy of a document, the method comprising:

• receiving at a first storage device from a plurality of computing devices a plurality of incremental updates for the document, each incremental update being received from one of a plurality of applications, wherein at least two of the incremental updates are received from different applications;
• storing the incremental updates from the plurality of computing devices at a blob storage on the first storage device, the incremental updates being stored at the blob storage independently of an underlying file format of data in the incremental updates, at least one of the incremental updates being stored as an arbitrary length binary string, the arbitrary length binary string being different than the underlying format of the at least one incremental update, and the incremental updates being stored at a same database table in the blob storage, the updates from the plurality of computing devices being stored temporarily at the blob storage until a commit instruction is received at the first computing device;
• receiving at the first storage device the commit instruction;
• retrieving at the first storage device the master copy of the document from a cold storage in response to receiving the commit instruction;
• coalescing at the first storage device the incremental updates with the retrieved master copy of the document to create an updated master copy of the document, the coalescing including integrating the incremental updates with the retrieved master copy of the document, the integrating of the incremental updates with the retrieved master copy of the document being performed before the updated master copy of the document is stored in the cold storage;
• and
• storing the updated master copy of the document in the cold storage in place of the master copy of the document
• receiving an access request from one of the applications to read from the master copy of the document prior to receiving the commit instruction;
• analyzing the incremental updates stored in the blob storage to determine whether any of the incremental updates satisfy the access request;
• sending a copy of any incremental update satisfying the access request;
• retrieving at least a relevant portion of the master copy of the document from the cold storage if none of the incremental updates satisfies the access request;
• receiving from one of the applications a tag associated with one of the incremental updates;
• and
• storing the tag in the blob storage in association with the incremental update, the incremental update being searchable within the blob storage by the tag.