Abstract: Presented is an automated policy-provisioning method for a computing system having a service-oriented architecture. The system comprises at least one managed service and at least one policy enforcement point operable to enforce a runtime policy for the service. The method comprises: receiving in machine-readable form at least one semantic rule defining a condition imposed by a business policy; receiving machine-readable data describing a runtime policy enforcement capability of the at least one policy enforcement point; determining based on the at least one rule and the capability whether the at least one policy enforcement point can meet the condition; based on the determination, deriving a runtime policy suitable for enforcing the condition; and communicating the runtime policy to the at least one policy enforcement point.

Abstract: Presented is an automated policy-provisioning method for a computing system having a service-oriented architecture. The system comprises at least one managed service and at least one policy enforcement point operable to enforce a runtime policy for the service. The method comprises: receiving in machine-readable form at least one semantic rule defining a condition imposed by a business policy; receiving machine-readable data describing a runtime policy enforcement capability of the at least one policy enforcement point; determining based on the at least one rule and the capability whether the at least one policy enforcement point can meet the condition; based on the determination, deriving a runtime policy suitable for enforcing the condition; and communicating the runtime policy to the at least one policy enforcement point.

Abstract: A software failure analysis method for use following detection of a software failure on a computing system. The method includes collecting local data from the computing system pertaining to the failure, sending a request for comparison data to at least one other computing system, the request characterizing the comparison data according to one or more characteristics of the failure, the other computing system automatically responding to the request for comparison data by collecting or generating the comparison data by reference to the request, automatically responding to a provision of the local data and the comparison data by forming a comparison between the local data and the comparison data; and outputting the comparison.