Machine-to-machine rules management methods and systems

1. A method comprising:

processing, by a machine-to-machine (“M2M”) rules management system associated with an M2M platform, a plurality of events associated with one or more M2M objects in substantially real-time as the events occur over a period of time;

receiving, by the M2M rules management system while the events are being processed in substantially real-time, data representative of a rule created by a user associated with the M2M platform; and

dynamically applying, by the M2M rules management system in response to receiving the data representative of the rule, the rule to the substantially real-time processing of the events by processing one or more events that occur after the data representative of the rule is received in accordance with the rule, the processing of the one or more events in accordance with the rule comprising:

determining, in accordance with the rule, that one or more conditions associated with the one or more events are met; and

performing, in accordance with the rule and in response to the determining that the one or more conditions are met, one or more actions based on the occurrence of the one or more events,

wherein

the plurality of events comprises a plurality of requests to provision the one or more M2M objects, and

the determining that the one or more conditions associated with the one or more events are met comprises one or more of determining that one or more requests to provision the one or more M2M objects are of a certain type, determining that the one or more M2M objects requested to be provisioned are included in a particular predetermined group of M2M objects, determining that the one or more M2M objects requested to be provisioned are located within a particular geographic territory, and determining that a user performing the plurality of requests to provision the one or more M2M objects is authorized to request the provisioning of the one or more M2M objects.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the performing of the one or more actions comprises performing the one or more actions in substantially real time as the one or more events occur.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the performing of the one or more actions comprises notifying at least one of the user and another user of the occurrence of the one or more events.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the performing of the one or more actions comprises performing the one or more actions in substantially real time as the one or more events occur.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

providing, by the M2M rules management system, a portal for use by the user and configured to facilitate creation of the rule;

wherein the receiving of the data representative of the rule created by the user comprises receiving the data by way of the portal.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the rule created by the user is a new rule not already being applied to the substantially real-time processing of the events at a time that the rule is created by the user.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the rule created by the user is a modified version of a rule already being applied to the substantially real-time processing of the events at a time that the rule is created by the user.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the dynamically applying of the rule to the substantially real-time processing of the events comprises dynamically replacing the rule already being applied to the substantially real-time processing of the events with the modified version of the rule.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more M2M objects comprise at least one of a device utilizing the M2M platform and an entity utilizing the M2M platform.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, by the M2M rules management system, data representative of the events from one or more M2M clients that detect the events as the events occur, the one or more M2M clients configured to operate in accordance with the M2M platform.

11. The method of claim 1 , embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

12. A method comprising:

receiving, by a machine-to-machine (“M2M”) rules management system, data representative of an event from an M2M client that detects the event as the event occurs;

dynamically determining, by the M2M rules management system in accordance with a predefined rule and in response to the receiving of the data representative of the event, that one or more conditions associated with the event are met; and

performing, by the M2M rules management system in accordance with the predefined rule and in response to the dynamically determining that the one or more conditions are met, one or more actions based on the occurrence of the event;

wherein

the event comprises a request to provision a customer asset associated with the M2M client,

the dynamically determining that the one or more conditions associated with the event are met comprises one or more of determining that the request to provision the customer assert is of a certain type, determining that the customer asset requested to be provisioned is included in a particular predetermined group of customer assets, determining that the customer asset requested to be provisioned is located within a particular geographic territory, and determining that a user performing the request to provision the customer asset is authorized to request the provisioning of the customer asset, and

the receiving, dynamically determining, and performing are performed in substantially real-time as the event occurs.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the performing of the one or more actions comprises notifying another user of the occurrence of the event.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

providing, by the M2M rules management system, a portal for use by another user and configured to facilitate creation of the predefined rule; and

receiving, by the M2M rules management system, data representative of the predefined rule from the another user by way of the portal.

15. The method of claim 12 , embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

16. A system comprising:

an event processing facility that processes a plurality of events associated with one or more machine-to-machine (“M2M”) objects associated with an M2M platform in substantially real-time as the events occur over a period of time, the plurality of events comprising a plurality of requests to provision the one or more M2M objects; and

a rules management facility communicatively coupled to the event processing facility and that

receives, while the events are being processed in substantially real-time, data representative of a rule created by a user associated with the M2M platform, and

dynamically applies, in response to receiving the data representative of the rule, the rule to the substantially real-time processing of the events by:

determining that a particular event has occurred;

dynamically determining, in accordance with a predefined rule and in response to the determining that the particular event has occurred, that one or more conditions associated with the particular event are met; and

performing, in accordance with the predefined rule and in response to the dynamically determining that the one or more conditions are met, one or more actions based on the occurrence of the particular event,

wherein the dynamically determining that the one or more conditions associated with the particular event are met comprises one or more of determining that a request to provision an M2M object is of a certain type, determining that the M2M object requested to be provisioned is included in a particular predetermined group of M2M objects, determining that the M2M object requested to be provisioned is located within a particular geographic territory, and determining that a user performing the request to provision the M2M object is authorized to request the provisioning of the M2M object.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the performing of the one or more actions comprises automatically authorizing a request to provision an M2M object included in the plurality of M2M objects or automatically denying the request to provision the M2M object included in the plurality of M2M objects.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the request to provision the customer asset associated with the M2M client comprises a request to activate, deactivate, or change one or more features of the customer asset.