US Patent 10095707 Nearline cloud storage based on FUSE framework

In one example, a method is provided for presenting cloud based storage as a virtual synthetic using a FUSE module at a client. Initially, a FUSE interface of a FUSE module to request file system information from a datacenter server. After the requested file system information has been received, it is presented, with the FUSE interface, in the form of a file system interface that represents a FUSE file structure. Next, the FUSE module requests a portion of a file that resides at the datacenter. The request specifies a particular byte range associated with the file, and the byte range spans less than the entire file. The received data form a virtual synthetic that includes respective portions of data from each of a plurality of backups residing at the datacenter, and the file system interface enables client access to the virtual synthetic.