Nigel G Cain

7756828, Jul 13, 2010

Feb 28, 2006

11/276444

Anthony Baron - Woodinville WA, US
Anders Vinberg - Kirkland WA, US
Andrew Timothy Hopper - Bellevue WA, US
Ashvinkumar J. Sanghvi - Sammamish WA, US
Dileep R. P. Kumar - Redmond WA, US
Giedrius Zizys - Redmond WA, US
Nigel G. Cain - Redmond WA, US
Vij Rajarajan - Issaquah WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 7/00

707634, 707659

A configuration management database for storing configuration information about an IT system. The configuration management database may have representations of configuration items that correspond to configuration items in the IT system, indicia of relations between the configuration items, and attributes of the configuration items. The configuration management database may also have configuration state information of the configuration items, where the configuration state information has information indicating whether a configuration item, relation, or attribute is in a state of pending approval or in a state of planned deployment. The configuration management database may also have temporal information indicating a temporal state of a configuration item, relation, or attribute.

7761530, Jul 20, 2010

May 7, 2007

11/800702

Nigel Cain - Redmond WA, US
Andy Hopper - Bellevue WA, US
Dileep Kumar - Redmond WA, US
Bahadir Onalan - Bellevue WA, US
Ashvin Sanghvi - Sammamish WA, US
Pritam Sharma - Sammamish WA, US
Giedrius Zizys - Redmond WA, US
Kenneth Van Hyning - Snoqualmie WA, US
R. Syam Kumar - Redmond WA, US
Andrea Westerinen - Issaquah WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 15/16

709213, 707100

A change management system for managing configurable devices such as computer systems uses a set of rules for validating change requests, linking change requests, and determining inconsistencies within various configuration states. Analysis and validation may happen at the time the change request is created with respect to the current environment, as well as analysis and validation with respect to other pending requests and proposals, and historical actual states. The maintenance of accurate and consistent state and change information may enable various automated tools to analyze and manipulate change requests, including analysis of future desired states, historical actual states, pending change requests, and current state. The change request may be processed through an approval cycle all the while being incorporated into a scheduling system that may be used to detect inconsistent, illogical or harmful configurations in potential future configurations.

7765241, Jul 27, 2010

Apr 20, 2007

11/738194

Andrea Rose Westerinen - Issaquah WA, US
Nigel Graham Cain - Redmond WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 7/00
G06F 17/30

707803

Defining target data types within an instance of a target data type definition for inclusion in a reference data type definition to declare expected entity relationships in a model. The model corresponds to, for example, software, a business process, or an organizational structure. The target data type defines one or more elements with target data. The target data describes entities that are expected to be related to the reference entity according to a predefined entity relationship. The existing reference data type definition is used to declare the expected entity relationships. In an embodiment, the defined target data type includes a tag in an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) document.

8543443, Sep 24, 2013

Aug 17, 2007

11/840412

Thomas Keane - Seattle WA, US
Marisol Ontaneda - Kirkland WA, US
Thomas N. Martino - Everett WA, US
Nigel Graham Cain - Redmond WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06Q 10/00

705 727, 705 715, 705 722, 705 723, 705 725, 705 726

A change management system may use a phased status indicator that may illustrate several phases of a change request and a current status for each phase of a change management lifecycle. Additionally, a group of change requests may be displayed in a linked manner showing various relationships between change requests. The status indicator and linked display may be used together or separately to illustrate the status of various change requests and within interactive displays of change request data.

20060004875, Jan 5, 2006

May 11, 2004

10/843024

Anthony Baron - Woodinville WA, US
Nigel Cain - Redmond WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 17/30

707200000

A schema for use in implementing a configuration management database (CMDB) includes an entity to store information identifying configuration items and a separate entity to store attributes of the configuration items. The CMDB schema may also include a separate entity to track relationships between configuration items. The CMDB schema may also include an entity to store a default list of approvers for changes and/or an entity to store dependencies between requested changes.

20060080656, Apr 13, 2006

Oct 12, 2004

10/962769

Nigel Cain - Redmond WA, US
Anthony Baron - Woodinville WA, US
Sanjiv Sharma - Bellevue WA, US
Frank Zakrajsek - Carnation WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 9/445

717174000, 434118000

In one aspect, a method of instructing users in the implementation of a patch management process is provided. The patch management process relates to the installation of a software patch in a computer system. The method comprises an act of providing instructions that describe the patch management process in a hierarchical manner so that the patch management process is described as comprising a plurality of top-level activities, with each of the plurality of top-level activities being described as comprising at least one sub-action, the instructions describing trigger events that result in transitions between the top-level activities. In another aspect, a method includes following the instructions that describe the patch management process. In another aspect, an assess activity is performed distinct from the installation of any particular patch to assess the computer system to determine the preparedness of the computer system to process future anticipated but unspecified patches

20080168083, Jul 10, 2008

Jan 10, 2007

11/621961

Andrea Rose Westerinen - Issaquah WA, US
Nigel Graham Cain - Redmond WA, US
Bahadir Baris Onalan - Bellevue WA, US
Adam Joseph Herscher - Seattle WA, US

MICROSOFT CORPORATION - Redmond WA

G06F 17/30

707102, 707E17044

A computer-readable storage medium having a data structure for representing a plurality of objects. The data structure includes a first data field storing data associated with a taxonomy type. The data structure also includes a second data field storing data associated with a reference to a model instance of an object classified by the taxonomy type. The model instance identifies an entity represented by the classified object. A third data field stores a first data set having data stored in the second data field. The first data set identifies a set of one or more objects related to the classified object positioned higher in a hierarchical structure than the classified object. A fourth data field stores a second data set having data stored in the second data field. The second data set identifies a set of one or more objects related to the classified object positioned lower than classified object.