Granted Patent B2

US 8,850,598 · App. 12/276,262 · Granted Sep 30, 2014

Abstract

Claims (26)

1. A service management system, comprising:

a nontransitory storage medium having a repository configured to contain end points, subscriber and service descriptions that define services in terms of a set of said end points that assume roles based on at least one of capabilities and attributes thereof; and

a computing device configured to implement a policy engine that is coupled to said repository and configured to employ said repository to identify end points relevant to a policy, identify services in which any of identified end points play a role, identify subscribers having both at least one of said identified end points and a subscription to at least one of identified services, search for end points of identified subscribers having a key/value pair that has a characteristic that said policy regards and cause said policy to be executed with respect to searched end points.

2. The service management system as recited in claim 1 wherein said policy engine causes said policy to be executed by invoking a computer program embodying said policy.

3. The service management system as recited in claim 1 wherein said end points are selected from the group consisting of:

devices, and

systems.

4. The service management system as recited in claim 1 wherein said policy engine is further configured to cause said policy to be executed with respect to systems that play a role in said services.

5. The service management system as recited in claim 1 wherein said policy engine is further configured to identify said subscribers and other policies.

6. The service management system as recited in claim 1 wherein said policy engine is further configured to cause said policy to be executed by passing a list of said identified devices of said identified subscribers and said identified systems to a computer program.

7. The service management system as recited in claim 1 wherein said policy is invoked without an end point or subscriber specificity.

8. A method of executing a policy, comprising:

configuring a nontransitory storage medium to store instructions implementing said policy, said instructions including:

evaluating an input to determine a starting scope;

identifying end points relevant to said policy;

identifying services in which any of identified end points play a role;

identifying subscribers having both of at least one of said identified end points and a subscription to at least one of identified services; and

searching for end points of said identified subscribers having a key/value pair that has a characteristic that said policy regards; and

configuring a computing device to execute said policy with respect to searched end points.

9. The method as recited in claim 8 wherein said end points are selected from the group consisting of:

devices, and

systems.

10. The method as recited in claim 8 further comprising executing said policy with respect to systems that play a role in said services.

11. The method as recited in claim 8 wherein said identifying said end points comprises further identifying said subscribers and other policies.

12. The method as recited in claim 8 wherein said executing comprises passing a list of said identified devices of said identified subscribers and said identified systems to a computer program.

13. The method as recited in claim 8 wherein said policy is invoked without an end point or subscriber specificity.

Assignments (8)