On Tuesday 10 April 2007 01:21, Ilya Volvovski wrote: > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Kern Sibbald [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 3:13 AM > > To: bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net > > Cc: Ilya Volvovski > > Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] Soliciting opinions > > > > On Saturday 07 April 2007 22:56, Ilya Volvovski wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > > > My name is Ilya Volvovski and I am a software architect for > > a company > > > called Cleversafe (www.cleversafe.org <http://www.cleversafe.org/> > > > and www.cleversafe.com <http://www.cleversafe.com/> ) > > > > > > I address this discussion group to gauge interest in our > > proposition > > > from people who make living by making sure that data is not lost. > > > Cleversafe mission is to offer a product that would provide > > unlimited, > > > secure, scalable, reliable data storage facility. We want to move > > > storage from home tape devices, CD/DVD drives to Internet. > > > > This is something that the Bacula project had planned to do > > in 2000. However there are still problems of Internet > > reliability for high volumes (dropped lines), bandwidth, and > > security concerns that poses major problems. > > > A Cleversafe Grid could live anywhere including LAN, WAN but its full > potential should be realized with Internet. > Our approach allows us restoring data without having all pillars (this > is a logical place where a slice of original data is stored) available. > Of course nothing could guarantee that it is always available, if you > loose connectivity you loose access to the Grid > > > > > > > If you look at our website, you would learn that are > > patented approach > > > allows to achieve very high level of reliability with > > reasonably small > > > data blowup (2.0 now but our next release would make it > > configurable: > > > 30% data overhead still would still guarantee high > > reliability). Data > > > could be optionally encrypted, compressed and then dispersed into > > > several locations. Cleversafe Storage Grid is also > > self-healing: if a > > > few slices are lost due to hardware problems, they could be > > recreated > > > by the grid. > > > > Well, a problem here is that you mentioned the word "patent", > > and patents don't generally go very well with GPL software, > > so I would like to hear more about how you are using the patent. > > > We release our software with GPL2 license. The word patent in my email > mostly signified that it is original. I admit that I should not use this > language because it creates more confusion than clarity in the open > source space. Cleversafe patents were filed mostly to protect ourselves > from being sued on this technology. It is still debated whether it was > necessary or not. The bottom-line that our code can be freely used.
As long as governments allow patents on ideas rather than physical inventions as they were originally intended to protect, I have no problem with companies obtaining patents for original works such as yourself or IBM as a means of protection (too bad it has to be done), providing they clearly indicate in the license that the patent can be freely used. > > > > If it is a question of making Bacula interface to a patented > > device -- I don't see a big problem -- after all, Bacula > > interfaces to computers, disk drives, tape drives, ... all of > > which are patented devices (or have patented components). > > > So there is no need to interface with a patented device as I explained. > > > > > > > Our software would give means to store data, but we are not backup > > > experts. We want the existing backup solutions be used as > > before but > > > enabled to store data on Cleversafe Storage Grid. Being an > > open source > > > project we first looked at open source solutions and this > > lead us to > > > Bacula. > > > > As mentioned above, I would like to understand your patent vs > > you Open Source position a bit more. > > > > Also, I would be interested in your overall plan -- e.g. are > > you proposing it to all backup solutions? or are you just > > targeting certain ones? > > > At this point we have no clear preferences, we do research and Bacula > happened to be the first in the list. > In fact we would like to be backup solution agnostic as much as possible > and let people decide which tool they would like to use as long as the > final destination for their data is the Cleversafe Storage Grid. > > > > > > > Cleversafe has no expertise in using Bacula. However we > > were able to > > > install and we performed a very trivial integration with NO > > changes to > > > the existing Bacula codebase. We confirmed that if we > > configure Bacula > > > with a file type device, which happen to be our grid, we could use > > > Bacula to store data on it. > > > > Nice. It sounds like you have made your grid compatible with > > a filesystem. > Yes, in proof-of-concept it was implemented as a block device. That's > one of the simplest integration that we are looking at. > To proceed, I would suggest two things: 1. Clarify what your patent use license is in relation to Open Source software and using your grid (software). 2. Make your Bacula interface software available somewhere, and announce it on the bacula-users and bacula-devel lists and ask for feedback. That should give you an idea of the interest. I for one would be interested in learning more ... Best regards, Kern ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
