US Patent 8626793 Object storage

In one embodiment, a method is provided that may include determining, at least in part, by a device comprised, at least in part, in storage, whether to request that the storage perform, at least in part, at least one operation. The at least one operation may involve, at least in part, at least one object stored in the storage. The determining may be based, at least in part, upon metadata associated with the at least one object. The metadata may be stored in the storage, and may indicate an earliest permitted deletion time for the at least one object and/or a latest permitted access time for the at least one object. Of course, many modifications, variations, and alternatives are possible without departing from this embodiment.