US Patent 10007804 Secure cloud storage distribution and aggregation

Methods and systems for vendor independent and secure cloud storage distribution and aggregation are provided. According to one embodiment, an application programming interface (API) is provided by a cloud storage gateway device logically interposed between third-party cloud storage platforms and users of an enterprise. The API facilitates storing of files, issuing of search requests against the files and retrieval of content of the files. A file storage policy is assigned to each user, which defines access rights, storage diversity requirements and a type of encryption to be applied to files. Responsive to receiving a request to store a file, (i) searchable encrypted data is created relating to content and/or metadata of the file based on the assigned file storage policy; and (ii) the searchable encrypted data is distributed among the third-party cloud storage platforms based on the storage diversity requirements defined by the assigned file storage policy.