Abstract: Technologies are described herein for automating governance, risk, and compliance management (GRC). Through the utilization of the technologies and concepts presented herein, GRC management may be automated to thereby provide significant reduction in customization per installation or customer. Compliance management of regulations for managed entities may entail receiving a set of control objectives mapped to the regulations. A set of scopes mapped to the managed entities may be received. Harmonized test results for the control objectives may be generated. Harmonized test results may be identified for a subset of the control objectives mapped to one or more specified regulations for the managed entities within a specified one of the set of scopes. Also, a compliance report may be generated based upon the identified harmonized test results.

Abstract: One embodiment of the invention uses templates that define certain features of a given service type, wherein the features are common to all services of that service type. The template can be configured by a user to obtain a service definition for the given service. The service definition is passed to a programmability layer and provides enough information that the programmability layer can construct the various monitors, rules, classes and tasks required to monitor the given service without further customization by the user. In one embodiment, the user can also customize the service definition, a desired, in order to obtain additional monitoring.

Abstract: Described is sharing of portable packages containing encodings of processes. The packages can be provided to and shared among organizations or firms so that the packages can be applied to their software stacks. The packages are portable and distinct from the technology stacks. The packages can cross reference each other. The packages may be in the form of declarative code for configuring the technology stacks and can be plugged into the technology stacks to allow the technology stack to play the packages, thereby automating the processes encoded by the packages. The packages can be digitally signed or provided with certificates that can be used to verify their authenticity. The packages can be distributed over a network as requested by the various firms or organizations.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are disclosed for monitoring a distributed application. A particular method identifies a plurality of components of a distributed application. The method also identifies a specific technology associated with a particular component and attaches a technology specific interceptor to the particular component based on the identified specific technology. The method includes intercepting messages that are sent by or received by the particular component using the technology specific interceptor. At least one potential work item is generated based on the intercepted messages. The method includes determining whether to schedule the at least one potential work item for execution based on a predicted impact of the at least one work potential item on performance of the distributed application.

Abstract: Model-based system monitoring includes identifying multiple monitors configured to monitor multiple components in a system, and accessing multiple health models associated with the multiple monitors. A monitoring policy is generated to monitor the system. The monitoring policy is derived, at least in part, from the multiple health models.

Abstract: Various embodiments provide a causality model is used to express causality of system entities in terms that do not necessarily require knowledge of the overall composition of the specific system of which it comprises a part. The causality model, used in connection with model-based management techniques, can allow for the expression of causality in terms of relationships that particular system entities have with other system entities. These other system entities can be entities that share a direct relation or, more generally, an indirect relation with the entity for which the causality is expressed.

Abstract: Model-based system monitoring includes accessing a model of a system that includes multiple components and identifying relationships among the multiple components based on the model of the system. A proposed change to at least one of the multiple components is identified. A determination is made regarding an expected impact on the system caused by the proposed change. This determination is made, at least in part, based on the model of the system.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: In accordance with certain aspects of the model-based policy application, each of a plurality of policies is associated with appropriate parts of a model of a heterogeneous system. A deployment agent is invoked to apply each of the plurality of policies to components associated with the parts of the model. An identification of a change to one of the plurality of policies is received, and the deployment agent is also invoked to apply the changed policy to selected ones of the components associated with the parts of the model.

Abstract: The described unified service management system provides a unified console to perform functions of individual management specialists. A unified console facilitates an administrator to perform the complex tasks that were performed by the individual management specialists. The unified console provides a “wizard” based approach to the administrator to design all aspects of the complex tasks including placement of components or computing devices, deciding on policies of the components or computing devices, deciding on health policies of components or computing devices, fixing data protection policies of components or computing devices, etc.

Abstract: In connection with an operations management system, a vendor feedback system reports on operational events that occur on customer data centers. The operations management system provides a standardized environment for providing feedback to a vendor of components installed at the customer data centers. Methods supported by the vendor feedback system can include directing the operations management system to report on predefined operational events involving the components installed by the vendor at the customer data centers. Event reports are then stored at the customer data centers in response to occurrences of the predefined operational events. The event reports can be generated in cooperation with the operations management system. The event reports are transmitted to the vendor as feedback relating to the components, and the vendor receives the event reports from the customer data centers.

Abstract: A change order to be executed at a scheduled time as part of a change plan is created, wherein the change order to define a change to an Information Technology (IT) environment. The change order is validated against validation rules to simulate execution of the change order at the scheduled time wherein other change orders scheduled to execute before the execution of the change order are included in the simulation. Breaks in change orders scheduled to execute after the change order are detected. Side effects caused by execution of the change order are determined. The results of validating the change order are output.

Abstract: A data synchronization task is received at a console, wherein the data synchronization task is associated with information technology management. A configuration document is configured using the data synchronization task, wherein the configuration document defines data synchronization through declarations. A linking framework is configured based on the configuration document. Data is synchronized from a first and second source to a target as defined by the configuration document.

Abstract: An event management system includes an email consumer for handling email, a paging consumer, an active scripting consumer, a log file consumer, an event log consumer, and a command line consumer. The events in the event management system are represented as objects and each consumer is represented as a class. The system also includes an event forwarding consumer to forward events. The event management system allows the creation of an instance of an event filter which filters events based on event filter properties. The system also allows the creation of an instance of an event consumer which defines an action and creation of a binding between the instance of the event filter and the instance of the event consumer such that the binding includes properties identifying the instance of the event filter and the instance of the event consumer.

Abstract: Computer services and other computer entities may be monitored and evaluated by using a model that defines the services and relationships between the services. The model may be used during discovery for finding entities and creating instances of the entities and instances of the relationships between entities. After discovery, data may be collected and stored in a database by monitoring or instrumenting the entity. Analysis of the data may include tracking performance and monitoring the health of a service or other entity. The relationships may be used to graphically display various entities in many useful manners, including graphical representations of the health of various entities.

Abstract: An event-handling system assigns multiple devices in an enterprise to a group. At least one event-handling policy is assigned to the group of devices. The event-handling policy assigned to the group is associated with each of the multiple devices in the group. A current state of each device is evaluated before the event-handling policy is applied to the device. A particular device may be assigned to two or more groups. The event-handling policy may define how the device is configured or the types of events that are provided to each device.

Abstract: A policy handling system creates multiple policies and associates each of the multiple policies with at least one target node in an enterprise. The system then applies each of the multiple policies to the appropriate target node. The multiple policies can be event-handling policies. Each policy can be associated with a group of target nodes in which the group of target nodes share a common relationship. Domain controllers receive the multiple policies and apply the policies to the appropriate target nodes. A meta-policy is used to control the application of the multiple policies to the proper target nodes.

Abstract: A policy handling system creates multiple policies and associates each of the multiple policies with at least one target node in an enterprise. The system then applies each of the multiple policies to the appropriate target node. The multiple policies can be event-handling policies. Each policy can be associated with a group of target nodes in which the group of target nodes share a common relationship. Domain controllers receive the multiple policies and apply the policies to the appropriate target nodes. A meta-policy is used to control the application of the multiple policies to the proper target nodes.

Abstract: An event management system includes an email consumer for handling email, a paging consumer, an active scripting consumer, a log file consumer, an event log consumer, and a command line consumer. The events in the event management system are represented as objects and each consumer is represented as a class. The system also includes an event forwarding consumer to forward events. The event management system allows the creation of an instance of an event filter which filters events based on event filter properties. The system also allows the creation of an instance of an event consumer which defines an action and creation of a binding between the instance of the event filter and the instance of the event consumer such that the binding includes properties identifying the instance of the event filter and the instance of the event consumer.

Abstract: Various embodiments provide a causality model is used to express causality of system entities in terms that do not necessarily require knowledge of the overall composition of the specific system of which it comprises a part. The causality model, used in connection with model-based management techniques, can allow for the expression of causality in terms of relationships that particular system entities have with other system entities. These other system entities can be entities that share a direct relation or, more generally, an indirect relation with the entity for which the causality is expressed.