Abstract:
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for notifying designated individuals of the success, failure or other status of a data transfer process. The system includes a central management computer for controlling the data transfer process and distributed agents for carrying out the process. As the data transfer process continues, the status, including success or failures of individual steps, is communicated to the central management computer in encoded messages within a control protocol. The central management computer retains logs of the status. Upon completion or termination of the data transfer process, the logs or other information regarding status of the process are provided to designed persons by the central management computer.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The invention relates to a method and apparatus for sending notifications to designated individuals regarding the status of a data transfer process, where the notification messages are sent as part of a system for controlling the distribution of data over a computer network using a centralized manager that controls a plurality of agents where agents are communicating peers and the central manager controls the distribution of data between them using data distribution rules stored in a central data distribution rules database. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   For years, a company&#39;s success depended on its ability to receive, manufacture, and ship physical goods. However, as the industrial economy gave way to the information economy, the game changed. Over the past several decades, the use of electronic communications by individuals and companies has exploded. There is a great need for companies to share electronic information, within a company, between companies and with the public. Furthermore, product ordering, and even delivery for digital products, is now regularly performed electronically. However, the increase in electronic communications and commerce has also created numerous problems of reliability, security, and coordination. These problems are not adequately address by existing mechanisms for transferring electronic information. 
   In the 21st century, business success no longer hinges on the movement of physical goods, but on the exchange of data: a company&#39;s ability to produce, add value to, and derive value from data is crucial to its success. Regardless of whether data is satellite imagery, software source, seismic exploration results, reinsurance documentation or any other form of electronic information, data is critical to modern businesses. Furthermore, enterprises need to collaborate with suppliers, partners and customers, while doing so with fewer fixed costs and less capital. To be successful, enterprises must efficiently move data without stumbling on system, geographic or corporate boundaries. The expansion of information transfers and cost reduction pressures have impeded the ability of companies to properly handle electronic information. 
   Often the process of exchanging data relies on homegrown tools for information transfer. Many companies expend substantial effort scripting data transfers that use the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), rather than applying resources to revenue generating activities. Automating just one simple process can take many person-months of effort. 
   Many organizations attempt to secure electronic transfer over public Internet Protocol-based networks using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). However, VPNs offer nothing in terms of process automation and application integration and require compatible VPN implementations at either end of the connection. It is unrealistic to expect all suppliers, vendors, customers, trading partners, or collaborators to implement company specific VPNs in order to communicate. 
   Extensive mergers and acquisitions have also changed the state of today&#39;s enterprise and the need for information sharing. This trend is prevalent in the high-tech sector, where established players are acquiring or merging with smaller companies in niche markets. This growth increases the necessity to have a reliable means of sharing data between two companies that need to operate as one. Companies are often relying on physical media and homegrown systems to transfer business critical data from one work site to another. With a merger or acquisition, companies are faced with the troubling task of needing to distribute physical media to more people or linking new users who are operating on disparate systems into their homegrown data transfer solution. 
   As the challenge of transferring data with their customers, partners and suppliers swells for organizations, there is a growing need for different solutions for different “classes” of business data. Much like the postal service deals with letters and packages of varying shapes and sizes, so does data transfer. For example, data that must be distributed to many people around the world is best delivered using a browser-based Internet download solution. On the other hand, critical corporate data that requires process automation and high levels of security is best distributed using an automated data distribution model. 
   Existing systems and processes for communicating or transferring electronic data have great deficiencies in meeting many needs of today&#39;s businesses. In particular, existing solutions lack the ability to address automated, event-driven, system-to-system data distribution requirements. They also lack the ability to provide proper security with ease of use and wide distribution. Furthermore, they are not easily scalable or interoperable. Therefore, a need exists for a system that automates secure system-to-system data distribution amongst a large number of sources and targets over any network. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The deficiencies of the prior art are substantially overcome by the system of the present invention which includes a system having at least two computers or other terminal devices between which data is transferable, a central manager, a set of data distribution rules and distribution agents associated with each of the computers or terminal devices. The data distribution rules are stored in the central manager and include information necessary for the proper transfer of data from one location to at least one second location. For example, the data distribution rules may include file source and destination information, file formatting information, tasks to be executed before or after transfers, dependencies between transfers, firewall traversal information, and encryption information. The distribution rules are communicated to the distribution agents which process the rules to carry out the data transfer. Distribution agents may operate independently or in combination. As an alternative to including all of the transfer information in the distribution rule, appropriate information may be included in a distribution agent. The distribution agents are responsive to receipt of specific information to perform their individually designated process. Therefore, upon receipt of a distribution rule from the central manager, either through a direct connection or a connection through another distribution agent, a distribution agent can respond by retrieving the desired file or files, properly formatting them, transferring the files to the designated recipient and performing other functions including local command execution. Upon receipt of instructions and data, another distribution agent appropriately receives the data, including any necessary decryption, stores the data file according to its defined rules, and performs other functions including local command execution. The central manager can also coordinate multiple data transfers, remote command executions, and manage dependencies between them including serial and conditional execution. Two-way communication links between the central manager and one of the distribution agents or between distribution agents preferably are maintained during a transfer process. These communication links may be through one or more local area networks, wide area networks, proprietary networks, global networks or other networks, including wired, wireless or a combination of wired and wireless networks. 
   According to another aspect of the invention, the distribution rules include a notification process. The notification process identifies information to be sent by the distribution agents upon completion or failure of any part of a data transfer process. According to an aspect of the invention, the completion or termination of each step performed by a distribution agent is communicated through the open communication line to the central manager. The central manager maintains at least one log of the communicated completion and termination information. Upon completion or termination of all of the parts of the data transfer process defined by a distribution rule, notification is performed, also as defined by the distribution rule. The notification rule can include the person or persons to notify and the information to include in the notification. According to an aspect of the present invention, the notification may provide different notifications for completions of the data transfer process than for failure of the data transfer process. According to an aspect of the invention, two logs are used, one for completed items and one for failed or terminated items. Only one of the logs is provided in the notification process depending upon the success or failure of the data transfer. 
   According to another aspect of the inventions, agents communicate real-time status information to the manager through the manager-agent control protocol. The notification apparatus inserts encoded notification messages into the control protocol stream and processes the encoded notification messages in the control protocol at the manager for delivery to external recipient in the indicated form. Notification logic is coded into the data distribution rules as part of custom data distribution logic extensions that execute at various call-out points in the data distribution process. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a data transfer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIGS. 2   a - 2   e  illustrate operation of distribution rules and distribution agents within a data transfer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates operation of notification message processing according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
   The present invention provides a distributed system for efficient and adaptable data transfer and control.  FIG. 1  illustrates a data transfer system  1  in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The data transfer system  1  is formed of a plurality of computers  10 ,  21 ,  22 ,  23 ,  24 ,  31 ,  32 ,  41 ,  42 . These computers may be of any currently known types, including personal computers, minicomputers, mainframes, servers, etc. Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to computers. The transfer processes of the present invention can be used with any device to or from which data may be transferred, including, in addition to computers, PDAs, MP3 players, cellular telephones, etc. The following description of the system of the present invention uses the term computers for ease of reference. The exact nature of the computers used is not important to the data transfer system  1 . The key feature of such computers is the ability to communicate to other computers in order to carry out the operations of the present invention as described below. The computers can communicate in any known manner, including through wired or wireless local area networks, wide area networks, global area networks, peer-to-peer connections, or other communications links. As illustrated in  FIG. 1 , different types of networks can be utilized depending upon the desired source and destination of any data transfers.  FIG. 1  illustrates computers networked in two separate corporate intranets  20 ,  40  which are joined by the Internet  30 . Firewalls  51 ,  52  are disposed in the connections between the intranets  20 ,  40  and the Internet  30 . Of course, any other configurations are possible for the present invention. 
   As illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the data transfer system  1 , includes a central management computer  10  and a plurality of distribution agents  21   a ,  22   a ,  23   a ,  24   a ,  31   a ,  32   a ,  41   a ,  42   a , each associated with one of the computers in the data transfer system  1 . A distribution agent is a piece of software which resides on a local computer. The distribution agent responds to communications from the central management computer  10 , or any of the other computers, to perform programmed steps in a data transfer. The central management computer  10  stores a set of distribution rules. Each rule corresponds to a particular data transfer process to be performed. 
   Operation of the data transfer system  1  will now be described. Based upon a set timing, upon the occurrence of a specified condition or at other times, the central management computer  10  establishes a communication link  11  to one of the computers  21  in the data transfer system  1 . The timing can be based on various given factors. Generally, the timing of data transfers are based either on a schedule or upon occurrence of an event. Schedules are used for transfers to occur at specified times. Schedules may be set to accommodate other uses of resources, such as making data transfers outside of regular working hours. Events can also be used to trigger a transfer which is dependent upon the event, but not on a particular timetable. Alternatively, the timing can be based upon a specified event. For example, a request for a transfer can be sent to the central management computer. Upon receipt of a request, an appropriate communications link can be created by the central manager to provide the transfer. 
   Once a communication link  11  is established, a distribution rule is transferred from the central manager to the connected computer  21 . A distribution rule includes a set of steps for execution by the agent  21   a  on the connected computer  21  necessary to complete the desired data transfer. Such steps may include retrieval of the specified data from a source connected to the computer  21 , encryption of the data, formatting of the data, conversion of the data to a different format, firewall traversal processes, or any other process necessary to properly transfer data. Additionally, the distribution rule may include steps to be performed upon reception of the data, such as decryption, change in formatting, and storage of the data at the recipient computer. The distribution rule may also reference scripts to be performed before, after or during execution of steps in the data transfer. Thus, for example, information from a database can be extracted prior to a transfer. 
   Upon receipt of the distribution rule, the agent  21   a  performs the steps in the rule. In order to transfer data, a communication link  61  is opened between the source computer  21  and a recipient computer  22 . The exact nature of the communication link  61  depends upon the specific types and operations of the source computer  21  and the recipient computer  22 . The nature of the communication link  61  and the process for establishing it may be included in the distribution rule. Alternatively, these processes may be implemented by the agents  21   a ,  22   a  on each of the computers. Once a communication link  61  is established, the agent  21   a  performs the steps identified by the distribution rule to transfer the data. 
   As illustrated in  FIG. 1 , data transfers may occur within a single network or across networks. The data transfer system  1  is indifferent to the network structures. The processes for making transfers between networks are included in the distribution rules stored on the central management computer  10 . The procedure for transferring data between networks is essentially the same as for transfers within a network. The central management computer  10  opens a communication link  12  with a source computer  24  and transmits the appropriate data distribution rule. The source computer  24 , pursuant the scripts in the data distribution rule, establishes a communications link  62  with a recipient computer  31 . When a data transfer crosses networks, the data distribution rule may include information about traversing the firewall  51 , if any, between the networks. 
   The above examples illustrate the central management computer  10  establishing a communications link with source computers  21 ,  24  for moving data from the source computer  21 ,  24  to recipient computers  22 ,  31 . However, nothing in the present invention limits operation to a “push” transfer. As illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the communications links  61 ,  62  used in making the transfers are bi-directional. Data could just as easily be transferred from computer  22  to computer  21  over communication link  61  as the other way around. Thus, the central management computer  10  may open a communication link with computer  21  with a distribution rule requesting a transfer to computer  21  from another computer. Computer  21  would then establish a communication link  61  with another computer  22  having the desired data. Using the communication link, computer  21  requests that computer  22  transfer the appropriate data over the communication link. For ease of discussion, operation of the system is described herein as transferring data from a controlling computer  21 , i.e. the computer receiving a distribution rule first, to the non-controlling computer  22 , i.e. the computer receiving the distribution rule from the controlling computer. However, communication of the distribution rule, from the central manager or any other computer, is independent of the direction of data transfer. 
   Finally, the data transfer system  1  includes a management interface  5  connected to the central management computer  10  for establishing the distribution rules and installing the agents. The management interface  5  includes appropriate authentication procedures, such as user identification and passwords to prevent unauthorized changes to the central management computer  10 . An appropriate user interface is implemented on the management interface  5  in order to develop and install distribution rules. The management interface  5  is also used to set or modify the schedules for execution of distribution rules. Furthermore, the management interface  5  does not have to be a single purpose unit. Rather, it may be any computer which can connect to the central management computer  10 . The authorization process may also limit a specific user to creation or modification of only some distribution rules. In this manner, different entities may modify rules applicable to those entities. The distribution agents on each of the computers may also be installed by the central management computer  10  through use of the management interface  5 . Various authorization and security procedures can be used to control the installation or modification of distribution agents. 
   Since the data transfer process is defined by distribution rules, the data transfer system  1  of the present invention can easily accommodate different data transfer types to meet virtually any need.  FIGS. 2   a - 2   e  illustrate different possible scenarios for data transfer. 
     FIG. 2   a  illustrates a fan out process for distributing copies of the same data to a plurality of computers within or outside of a company. As illustrated in  FIG. 2   a , the central management computer  10  does not have to be a separate, stand-alone computer, but can be a part of a corporate intranet. Furthermore, more than one central management computer  10  can be used to store distribution rules for different companies or for a single company. In the fan out process of  FIG. 2   a , the central management computer  10  establishes a communication link  14  with a primary source computer  110 . The distribution rule transferred over the communication link  14  includes information about distribution of selected data to various computers. According to the distribution rule, the primary source computer  110  transfers the data to three secondary computers  111 ,  112 ,  113 . One of the secondary computers  111  is located outside of the corporate intranet and two of the secondary computers  112 ,  113  are within the intranet. The processes for transferring the data to each of the secondary computers  111 ,  112 ,  113  are part of the distribution rules and are not necessarily the same. For example, the transfer to secondary computer  111  may include firewall processes, which are not part of the internal transfers. The agents  112   a ,  113   a  on the secondary computers  112 ,  113  also operate on the distribution rule to further transfer the data to additional computers  114 ,  115 ,  116 ,  117 . In this manner, the distribution rule controls data transfer paths and optimizes the transfer process. The primary source computer  110  does not have to make separate transfers to all of the computers to receive the data. Since each recipient computer includes a distribution agent, subsequent distributions are possible from the recipient. Thus, an entire, complicated transfer process can be included as part of a distribution rule, which is distributedly executed by the distribution agents on the various computers. 
     FIG. 2   b  illustrates a replication process. The central management computer  10  establishes a communication link  15  with a primary source computer  120  and transmits the distribution rule. The primary computer then transfers the appropriate data to computers  121 ,  122  both within and outside the intranet. The distribution agent  122   a  on the computer  122  in the internet further processes the distribution rule to transfer the data to computer  123  on another intranet. 
     FIG. 2   c  illustrates a multiple copy replication process. Upon receipt of a distribution rule from the central management computer  10 , the primary source computer  131  transfers the data to a plurality of computers  132 ,  133 ,  134 . While the fan out process of  FIG. 2   a  also transfers data to multiple computers, the procedure is different from the replication process in  FIG. 2   c  since the primary source computer  131  makes all of the transfers in the process of  FIG. 2   c.    
     FIG. 2   d  illustrates a synchronization process. Since the steps for processing the data prior to transfer or upon receipt are included in the distribution rule, complex processes can be implemented. In the illustration of  FIG. 2   d , a primary computer  141  is used to synchronize data on several different computers  142 ,  143 ,  144  which are included within different networks. The central management computer  10  transmits  17  the distribution rule to the primary computer  141 . The primary computer then establishes two-way communication links  145 ,  146  to secondary computers. The two-way communications links  145 ,  146  are used to synchronize data in the secondary computers  142 ,  143  and the primary computer  141 . Furthermore, the distribution agent in secondary computer  142  establishes a two-way communication link  147  with another computer  144 . This two-way communication link  147  is used to synchronize the data with this other computer  144 . In this manner, complex synchronization can be implemented using simple distribution rules. 
     FIG. 2   e  illustrates an aggregation process. The central management computer  10  transmits a distribution rule to a primary computer  150 . The primary computer  150  establishes communication links  161 ,  162  with a plurality of computers  151 ,  152 . The distribution agents  151   a ,  152   a  on each of the plurality of computers responds to the distribution rule from the primary computer  150  by transferring data to the primary computer  150 . In this manner, the primary computer receives and aggregates the data from the plurality of computers  151 ,  152 . 
     FIGS. 2   a - 2   e  are merely illustrative of different processes which can be implemented using the data transfer system of the present invention. Other possible transfer processes may also be implemented by setting up appropriate data distribution rules. 
     FIG. 3  illustrates a notification process according to another aspect of the present invention. As noted above, the data transfer processes in the present invention are performed through communication links between computers. The same or other communication links can be used to provide feedback on the data transfer process. In particular, the distribution rule may include a process for reporting for the success or failure of all or any part of the data transfer process. As illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the central management computer  10  establishes a communication link  205  with a primary computer  210 . The primary computer  210  establishes a communication link  207  with a secondary computer  211  for data transfer. At certain call-out points in the data transfer process, as defined by the distribution rule, the status of the process is communicated to the central management computer. In particular, the agent  211   a  on the secondary computer  211  transmits status information over part of the communication link  208  with the primary computer  210 . Similarly, the agent  210   a  on the primary computer transmits the status information, its own and that received from the secondary computer  211  to the central management computer  10  over part of the communication link  206 . 
   According to an embodiment of the present invention, the communication link  205  between the central management computer  10  and the primary computer  210  operates according to a control protocol. Messages are passed over the communication link  205  as part of the control protocol. The status information can be sent as encoded messages within the control protocol. The central management computer  10  processes the encoded messages within the control protocol to retrieve the status information. 
   The status information is stored in one or more status logs  220 ,  221 . According to an embodiment of the present invention, two status logs are used, a success log  220  and a failure log  221 . Status information is added to the appropriate log throughout the data transfer process. Upon completion or termination of the data transfer process, a notification procedure  230  is implemented as defined by the distribution rule. In particular, information about the success or failure of the data transfer process is provided to a designated person. Different procedures can be used and information communicated in the notification process  230 . For example, the success log  220  and/or failure log  221  could be emailed to a designated address. A telephone call could be placed to a designated number merely providing the success or failure of the entire process. The notification may be provided to multiple people, for example, to people at two different companies involved in the data transfer. 
   The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of the equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.