
Cobalt Iron Inc., a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced that it has received a patent on its techniques for optimization of backup infrastructure and operations for health remediation. Granted on April 19, U.S. patent 11308209 describes new capabilities for Cobalt Iron Compass , an enterprise SaaS backup platform. Compass will automatically restore the health of backup operations when they are affected by various failures and conditions. As a result, backup operations become more resilient to storage device failures and threats.
Countless factors can impact backup infrastructure and operations in a large environment, such as cyberattacks against backup data or devices, security alert conditions, severe weather, fires, floods, device failures or pending failures, and high device utilization levels.
Some individual storage and backup products can monitor themselves and even take simple remediation actions based on internal failure conditions. But existing technologies are almost completely lacking in awareness of interdependencies between various components of a backup environment. Determining and monitoring such interdependencies are typically manual tasks that are seldom done except in the case of failures or cyberthreats, at which point it is often too late.
Further, analysis of the possible impacts of failures or threats between interrelated components, operations, and environmental conditions is almost nonexistent in the industry. Also lacking is the ability to automatically optimize backup infrastructure and operations to remediate device failures, security threats, or environmental events.
With this patent, Cobalt Iron is addressing these shortcomings. The techniques disclosed in this patent:
Determine the interdependencies between various hardware and software components of a backup environment.
Monitor for conditions in local or remote sites that could affect local backups. These conditions include:
Indications of a cyberattack
Security alert conditions
Environmental conditions including severe weather, fires, or floods
Automatically reprioritize backup operations to avoid or remediate impacts from the conditions (e.g., discontinue current backup operations or redirect backups to another site not impacted by the condition).
Dynamically reconfigure the backup architecture to direct backup data to a different target storage repository in a different remote site, or in a cloud target storage repository, that is unaffected by the condition.
Automatically extend retention periods for backup data and backup media based on the conditions.
Dynamically restrict or remove access to or disconnect from the target storage repository after backup operations complete.
For example, because of these techniques, storage and backup administrators can rely on Compass to detect that a storage device at a particular location being used for a backup is experiencing device failures or cyberthreats or is subject to environmental conditions. Then Compass can automatically analyze the impacts of the condition and take actions to remediate the situation.
Remediation action could include reconfiguring backups to use other storage devices at other locations (including the cloud), extending retention periods of backup data or backup media, restricting access to the storage device, or performing some other backup operation.
Cobalt Irons technology qualifies for this patent because of a unique combination of capabilities:
Discovery of interdependencies between various components of a backup environment.
The monitoring of failures and threat conditions.
The impact analysis to interrelated components.
The automated health remediation actions.
In particular, the automated optimization of backup infrastructure and operations to remediate component health and threat conditions is new.
Backup deployments are typically unresponsive to device failures, security threats, and environmental conditions. Thats what we aimed to rectify with this patent, said James Kost, senior systems engineer at Cobalt Iron. Of special note is that these patented techniques optimize the backup environment so it can automatically remedy operations when their health is threatened. This patent extends Cobalt Irons technology leadership in analysis and automated optimization of backup infrastructure and operations.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
22/04/2026
SBS names shortlisted brands for 2026 SBS Media Sustainability Challenge
22 April, 2026
Media releases
National broadcaster also releases its second annual...
22/04/2026
Why Low Band Electronic Warfare Matters...
22/04/2026
The nation unites around football team's World Cup dream
Warsaw, Poland, 20.04.26: Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data, and media intell...
22/04/2026
Warsaw, Poland, 22.04.26: Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data...
22/04/2026
New market intelligence offering gives businesses a clearer view of local consum...
22/04/2026
Glookast Unveils New UX, YouTube and Social Media Connectors, Premiere Panel, Ci...
22/04/2026
Lightcraft Technology to Preview Spark Story at NAB 2026 with Interactive Previs...
22/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/04/2026
Back to All News
This Earth Day, Discover the Sustainable Productions Behind Our Films and Series
Emma Stewart, Ph.D.
Netflix Sustainability Officer
Enterta...
22/04/2026
The move from Retail Media to Commerce Media is about broadening the scope of th...
22/04/2026
April 22 2026, 07:00 (PDT) Dolby and BMW Bring Dolby Atmos to the BMW 7 Series,...
22/04/2026
RT Documentary On One 7-part series breaks US market for first time
RT Programme Sales has announced its first deal with a US distribution partner for its 7-...
22/04/2026
NVIDIA and Google Cloud have collaborated for more than a decade, co engineering a full stack AI platform that spans every technology layer - from performance o...
21/04/2026
Cloud-based production isnt going anywhere, and BitFire is doubling down by prov...
21/04/2026
The topic of artificial intelligence has a stranglehold on the sports-video-prod...
21/04/2026
5G is still a hot topic in live event production, and this workflow continues to...
21/04/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show, Ed McGivern, GM and President of Appear US, discusses the ...
21/04/2026
Studio Network Solutions (SNS) has announced an on-premise AI suite designed for...
21/04/2026
Suite Studios has integrated its file-streaming technology into the newly announced Frame.io Drive, a desktop application from Adobe company Frame.io. The colla...
21/04/2026
Net Insight has integrated InSync Technology's FrameFormer into the Nimbra E...
21/04/2026
Fox Sports has selected Appear as a technology partner to support the next phase...
21/04/2026
Diversified has appointed Tyler Affolter as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) to lead the company's commercial organisation. The appointment follows the firm'...
21/04/2026
Layercake has formalised the integration of Bitmovin's video streaming infra...
21/04/2026
The International Judo Federation (IJF) has extended its distribution partnershi...
21/04/2026
Glookast has launched the Cinnafilm Tachyon plugin for its Media Producer and Me...
21/04/2026
Eutelsat has entered into an agreement with Cadena Tres, a division of Grupo Ima...
21/04/2026
Dolby Laboratories and TV Azteca have partnered to introduce Dolby Atmos immersive audio to free-to-air television broadcasts. The implementation utilises the A...
21/04/2026
FOX Entertainment partnered with Verizon to overcome significant production hurd...
21/04/2026
Osprey Video has announced its technology showcase for the NAB Show 2026, highli...
21/04/2026
Riedel Communications (Booth C4908) introduced a range of new solutions at NAB S...
21/04/2026
The NAB Show is in full swing, and the SVG and SVG Europe editorial teams are chasing down the hottest stories from all over the Las Vegas Convention Center. He...
21/04/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the URSA Cine Immersive 100G, an immersive cinem...
21/04/2026
Clark Wire & Cable is continuing its evolution from cable supplier to full-scale solutions partner for broadcast and live production. At the 2026 NAB Show, we s...
21/04/2026
Rashad Frett attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Ricky at Eccles Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, UT. (Photo by George Pimentel/Shut...
21/04/2026
Five years ago, Spotify arrived in Pakistan, opening a new chapter in the country's music scene. Since then, local listeners have explored across genres, ge...
21/04/2026
Since its launch in 2020, RADAR has been our program for spotlighting emerging artists around the world. This year marks the sixth edition of RADAR Spain, our o...
21/04/2026
Offers compact wireless solution for pedalboards
Taiwanese audio brand Cloudvocal have announced the availability of a new pedalboard-friendly wireless syst...
21/04/2026
Latest hybrid sampling/synthesis instrument arrives
Arturia's Augmented series offerings rely on a mixture of sampling and synthesis, allowing users to ...